(embiggenable) • iPhone
I CAN NOT HELP BUT CONTINUE TO wonder about the question, what is a photograph? Maybe a better question is why wonder about the question, what is a photograph? And just maybe the answer to both questions is "I don't know."
WIthout a doubt, any given photograph can be anything the maker wants it to be. Just as any given photograph can be anything to any viewer to any given photograph. In either case, any given photograph can be akin to an ink blot. It is exactly what it is and nothing more or it can funtion like a rorschach "test" and instigate a host of intellectual / emotional responses.
All of that seems to suggest that a photograph has no intrinsic point (aka: meaning)-a property that an object or a thing has of itself .... which does not mean that a photograph can not have an extrinsic property-a property that depends on a thing's relationship with other things. The "thing" being a photograph and the "other things" being the viewer and his/her relationship to and with "real" world.
It would be very easy to go down a pyscho-analytical / Academic Lunatic Fringe rabbit hole on this topic but the fact is that I have closed that trap door a long time ago. I have no interest in getting hopelessly lost in that rat's nest / labyrinth. No, I would rather keep it simple.
Which brings me to the movie The Point* ....
.... if a photograph has no intrinsic point other than myriad possibilities deduced by viewers thereof, the Pointless Man (from the movie) has a point:
"A point in every direction is the same as no point at all."
However, the Rock Man (from the movie) has a point as well:
"Say babe, ain't nuthin' pointless about this gig. The thing is, you see what you wanna see and you hear what you wanna hear. You dig?"
So, all of that written, I would venture that the point of my answer to my question, what is a photograph?, is that, other than the undeniable fact that a photograph, when printed, is a thing, it would seem to be rather pointless to be concerned about what a photograph is other than recognizing the fact of its tangible existence. And then get on with the act seeing what you want to see.
*hey, wisdom can be found in the most unlikely of places.