Talking About Photograpy 1

Every discipline feeds on and is fed by metaphorical images.

Much of the sense of photography is emcompassed in the word “darkness.”

Every metaphor contains its opposite.

Darkness /light, like postitive/negative, or simply black/white.

The word darkness takes us to a place without light, a place where the perception of sight is denied to the human eye.

For one to see, there must be a passage from darkness to revelation.

It is a technological process that brings with it much thought.

It is a passage that originates in “blindness.”


We begin life without sight. We develop our other senses first, learning to hear a voice, seek out warmth. Our sight develops slowly, expanding by a range as we age. Eventually we will return to that state, our bodies returning to infantile capabilties. Blindness can be a cycle or a continuum. If we are lucky, we only experience it physically at the end and the beginning. But there will be several times in a human life where ignorance, pride, or refusal can create a blindness far more damaging. HS

The definition of blind is  a. Sightless and b. Having a maximal visual acuity of the better eye, after correction by refractive lenses, of one-tenth normal. This definition states what the picture below is saying. The women is blind in one eye, but can see in her right eye. Though she cannot see clearly. I believe the statement of her sign is self explanatory, and it states the fact that she is partually blind. The picture of a black and white colors adds the depression and sadness of the picture.-Federica Nuzzolese

- I think the picture below shows the passage from darkness to revelation discussed above. The raw emotion and grief is obvious once one looks at all of the components of the picture. The man standing in the grave has his face covered so you can't deduce a specific emotion off the bat. However, once you see the dead body laid on the side, covered and prepared for burial you can feel his sorrow. The woman touching the face of the body also has her face only in partial view and not focused on but you can sense by the way she is touching the body and the barely visible grimace on her face that she is also in deep pain. The image of the body is such a sharp contrast in this picture because of its lifelessness amidst all of the stark emotion that it brings an emotion to the photo itself, without having made any facial expression. With all of the components a viewer is able to feel the pain and grief in this moment in time with no direct access to the subject's emotions. (Margot Rittenhouse)

The Jewish religion believes in death as the great equalizer. No possessions are taken with you, and wealthy or poor, you are buried in humble white cloth. In much the same way, sight or the lack thereof is a great commonality between us all. HS

I think the this picture deals with sadness and darkness, which is seen in the expression of the poeple's faces. The grief of both adults makes this picture emotional and it adds silent feeling to it. This picture also states how one's life can affect the life of others and how each life is valuable. -Federica Nuzzolese

There is a comfort in not knowing, in darkness, in concealment from the light. In a crowded street by night lights suddenly go off and that small universe has changed- you can hear, feel, and touch people around you but you don't see them, they are and aren't there, the street is packed yet empty, you are all together yet alone.

Tamara S