ABSTRACT
Photographs surround us nearly all the time, but we rarely consider that they may have to be read closely before they can be understood. Neither does the medium’s ubiquity mean that it is a successful universal communicator – a sort of visual lingua franca. Despite what we are often told, photographs do not ‘speak for themselves’. There is a tendency to relate the contents of a photograph to readers own experience and knowledge, but this is true of most things, not just photography. Seeing and thinking photographically are different from our normal visual and intellectual processes, so it is important to learn to ‘pre-visualise’. Cameras, of course, have the capacity to ‘freeze’ time and movement, but even when aiming for a candid, caught-on-the-wing picture, reader have to be aware of what they are including in the photograph. By placing the camera on a tripod, the process of making photographs becomes a more contemplative and deliberate act of stilling.
