Feeding my Inner Geek

I'm at it again. I've decided to take another class with MoMA, this one called "Seeing Through Photographs".  The coursework has been fascinating from the start.  There's relatively a lot of reading with this course, but that's not a problem.  You know how much I love to read.  Here are few excerpts from The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski, himself a photographer and the Director of Photography at MoMA from 1962-1991, that I had to write down.

Our faith in the truth of a photograph rests on our belief that the lens is impartial, and will draw the subject as it is, neither nobler nor meaner.  This faith may be naive and illusory (for though the lens draws the subject, the photographer defines it), but it persists.  The photographer's vision convinces us to the degree that the photographer hides his hand.

To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft.  His central problem is a simple one: what shall he include, what shall he reject?

The photograph's edge defines the content....The photographer edits the meanings and patterns of the world through an imaginary frame.

I love these somewhat poetic descriptions of the photographer's craft and intent. Yes, we should always stop to think: what else might lie just beyond the frame?