Blog Prompt #18

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” Arnold Newman

Illusions. In a way, life is kind of one big illusion. We can say that as we get older, we can understand another's perspective better, and become more worldly, with a broader view of our place in society; but the truth is, we will never be able to fully understand another person, in every respect, because we are forever in our own bodies. We can never enter another person's body, so it's really only possible to see the world from one perspective: our own.

Enter photography: it would seem that through photography, we could actually enter into another's world and see things from their perspective. I would even argue to support this view. But I have to agree that although we are seeing an image, in a sense, through a pair of eyes not our own, this is not a "real" image. We're not really there. It is an illusion of reality.

All photography is. What we take photos of, what we capture by a camera, is real, but the images themselves are not. We surround ourselves with photographs of memories--people and places, all real to us. It's interesting that we consider these to be evidence of reality, when the images are in fact only illusions. We surround ourselves with things that are impressions, with things that are not real, in order to remind ourselves that what we've experienced, and who we are, are real.