This summary of the main ideas in “Believing is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography),” by Errol Morris, is as terse as the text is expansive. As a photographer who shares this world with the rest of us, you need to acquire this book and digest it.
Errol’s book made simple. (Some principles.)
All photographs are posed.
The intentions of the photographer are not recorded in a photographic image. (You can imagine that they are, but it’s pure speculation.)
Photographs are neither true nor false. (They have no truth-value.)
False beliefs adhere to photographs like flies to flypaper.
There is a causal connection between a photograph and what it is a photograph of. (Even photoshopped images.)
Uncovering a relationship between a photograph and reality is no easy matter.
Most people don’t care about this and prefer to speculate about what they believe about a photograph.
The more famous a photograph is, the more likely it is that people will claim it has been posed or faked.
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