Blog Prompts #16, #17, & #18

“I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.” Duane Michals

Imagination is the fuel of creativity. A true artist is someone who has the ability to create a tangible object out of a mental image that stems from his or her imagination. Even when you see something that exists right in front of you, the mental attachments and connections you bring to that sight within your mind create a new image that is different for every viewer. I would not say that it is “what [you] cannot see” but more so what you are able to see in your minds eye that is important.


“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

To some, all reality is merely an illusion. Photography enhances this theory because it allows the creator to express and portray his or her version of reality and way of viewing the world. Photography is a “real” art form, and many images are representations of “real” objects in the world. The image; however, is not the “real” object, but an illusion or representation of it. Collage and photoshop as well as created scenes that the photographer shoots are without a doubt the reality of the photographer only. These things do not represent reality, they morph it into a completely different experience.

“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” Berenice Abbott

Since photography was invented it has served multiple purposes. The nature of photography is to capture a moment, preserving it forever. Therefore, a photograph has the ability to make a moment a memory or preserve a memory had by the photographer or someone else. Both the image and the subject become something in the past because that moment will never happen again in the exact same way, at the exact same time. As a result, photography represents that present moment; however, I do not believe that is can only represent the present because that present is no longer present when the image is viewed at a later date.