The Power of a Photograph

 Art is limitation. The essence of every picture  is the frame. - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

 A way of certifying experience, taking  photographs is also a way of refusing it—

 by limiting experience to a search for the

 photogenic, by converting experience

 into an image, a souvenir. - Sontag, On  Photography

 I photograph to find out what something will  look like photographed. - Garry Winogrand

HONY (Humans of New York) is this guy who takes great photographs of people. Each person featured on HONY is generally photographed alone. It's shown me how close-up shots of a person effectively alter your perception of him. Look at the man pictured above. I suspect that if I saw him in a crowd, I'd just see a disheveled old man. I'd avoid eye-contact. But now I see him and only him. I'm forced to reconsider him. I see a man with tired and sunken eyes that have seen a lot. And s that a suspicious or amused face? Dunno But I do know I am interested.

I guess you'd think I see him better now that I see him as an individual. True.

But seeing him alone also causes me to glorify him. Now a man wearing a colorful turban is a wise man, a sage full of counsel and exotic experiences. Oh, he doesn't have a shirt on? What a simple-minded man who doesn't care what others think of him! What a great simple life! Look at those gaunt shoulders. Must get lots of exercise. I should ask what he eats to stay in shape.