Photography is a two step process (Possibly)

There is always a second oppourtunity to perfect the image you have taken with the camera. In the days of film, the development process was when the image was finally revealed. Pushing during development, dodging, burning and cropping amongst other tricks were all available to the photographer at that stage. In fact most of these terms have been transposed to the digital era.

I guess the reason I write this is because I find myself in a desperate bid to get together a set of images.

I’m sorting and cropping, dodging, changing colours and levels, sharpening and blurring, making mediocre shots look just that bit more appealing, maybe even something that bit special. This manipulation of the original image goes far beyond anything which could be done with negatives and an enlarger.

This provokes a thought; What does it make my images? They’re not what I had in mind when I took the picture, they have only been realised now, after the event of shutter release.

It seems faintly acceptable to me to alter and apply retrospective thought to the original to make it something other then what it was. At least, sometimes I believe this to be true, but I know that for the people I admire most in photography this idea would not be entertained.

In the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson;

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.

He found beauty in “things as they are”. I doubt somehow if he would be pleased.