What Is Real, Anyways?

What Is Real, Anyways?

An essay I just wrote complaining about the constant barrage of 'is it photoshopped?' that still persists in spite of years of photographers trying to explain it.  I probably won't change any of the nay-sayer's minds either, but I at least wanted to say something, and along the way, show off the different ways a single image might be seen.

Why I shoot as many pics of Wiggles as I do...

Sesame Workshop - Say Cheese.: [Sonia, aka Maria on Sesame Street, talks about how she didn't like taking photos of her daughter.]

Who needed photos to remember moments? I didn't. Certainly not!

That was true until just recently. On a recent visit to my husband's office, I saw a picture of a 4-year-old, with the ex-mayor of New York City, David Dinkins [acroyear70: 1990 or 1991]. In the photo, she's smiling at Mayor Dinkins who is obviously charmed by her. It's a perfectly captured moment, a lovely picture. But, as I stared, I became horrified. It wasn't the fact that she was standing on the Honorable Mayor's desk that bothered me. No, I was horrified because I couldn't remember...I simply couldn't remember the event!

I could guess...It had probably been taken on one of several "Children's Day Celebrations" at Gracie Mansion, or a celebration for a television award. I just couldn't be positively sure....But I was so very happy someone had had the good sense to take a picture of it -- to record it for me. I began to wonder what other things had happened in her life that I had forgotten. I wondered what else had gone from my memory, to make room for other memories - events in Gabi's life that were, perhaps, too small to remember on their own, but could have lived on a picture I should have taken....

So there you have it. "To be or not to be." To stand outside the moment and record it; or to forgo recording it, in order to be in it! That's the question.