Gather around, photographers, it's time for deep thinking. What is it that we are doing when we document? What is a document?
The first image - To document isolates something out of the flow of real-time perceptive experience, making it more vivid, colorful, subjective, personal, etc, etc. Note - the cow artist's signed name is "Elsie". Her real name??? Hmmm)
Second image: You can't tell but it is pouring down rain. Wet laundry hung out in the rain to dry. (Can you imagine my excitement over the symbolic possibilities when I saw this one??? I slammed on brakes, did a U-ie and boldly trespassed to get this image for you.) So to me, this second image speaks to the paradox of documentary work.
Third image - elevation. The mere act of selecting something for the subject of a photograph elevates it out of it's quotidian meaning. (quotidian - a new word for me!) such as when I photograph something so common as a ramp. Now, suddenly, it is ****symbolic*****
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