Rear Window – © John Neel

When making a photograph – a strong feeling is not enough. The viewer can’t read your mind. A photograph needs visual elements that can lead the viewer to some kind of conclusion. There needs to be something that connects the dots in a way that provides clues as to the motive.

A photograph is a kind of statement. Like language, it needs a subject or subjects as well as some kind of grounding or starting point, which describes what is happening, or indicates at some level what the image is about.

A good photograph is one that teases the viewer and acts as a kind of riddle or puzzle. The subject and the concept are usually not the same things. A photograph attempts to provoke contemplation, which can be a trigger for some degree of enlightenment.

Every part of a photograph should contribute to the understanding of the whole image. That is to say that the  details in the fringes are just as important as the things that appear to be the dominant subject. The details usually contain the clues that support what the photographer is trying to reveal. The whole is the sum of its parts.

It is a matter of selection on the side of the photographer and a matter of reading for the viewer.

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