Photography: Art or Craft?

All of my photos represent my philosophy of photography. There is a blurry line between resolute photo realism and completely fabricated images from the likes of Photoshop. No blame intended on the Adobe product, just some of its users. I have lost a few friends while having this discussion.

I feel that there needs to be some truth to an image. Photography is a graphic art and content is derived from reality. In fact, in Japanese, photography is written as “写(Copy)真(Truth)”. Some may also interpret photography’s meaning as “same as how it appears” but that is far too constraining. In some other’s points of view, it can be thought of as a medium of emotional communication. Thus, the term “Copying Truth” I would not take literally but give it a respectful liberal interpretation of the Japanese translation.

You may now infer: I am no fan of photos ‘doctored’ to extreme with layer over layer of non-related imagery, color changes, and otherwise counterfeit image creation. BUT, I allow myself to use cropping and stylistic changes that conventional photo processing can provide in order to help focus the viewer on some important facet of the content. There remains a romantic and mysterious aspect in artificially produced imagery as long as it stays within the bounds of reason and reality.