The Photograph as Self

Every photograph is a self portrait.

You are what you shoot.

“I say to young photographers, 'What in God's name are you doing, taking a picture of a tree or a mountain? That's crazy! What you should do is take a person by the hand and show him the tree or the mountain itself. Why show him a stupid picture? It's flat and it's tiny compared to the mountain. The mountain is magnificent and has power . . .' They look at me as if I'm nuts. They don't know what to say back to me. So I go on to say that the reason you show someone a photograph is because a photograph is part of a human being — you — and as people we're more interested in human beings than we are in mountains. By showing a picture, you're showing an x-ray of your heart. The very silent, marvelous American painter, Edward Hopper, put it very simply. He said, 'The work's the man. You can't get something out of nothing.' - Ralph Steiner

This quote has less to do with the landscape and more to do with really seeing anything. In the act of photographing, we are showing ourselves to the world. We are sharing what we see and what we care about. In many ways, every photograph is a self-portrait. It is a moment of insight into the mind of the maker.

The camera looks both into the physical world and simultaneously into the soul of the photographer. Whether we are aware of this concept or not, it is a two-way encounter that works for the viewer as well as the photographer. The photograph opens the door to ones vision and to what the photographer believes to be important enough to photograph. The image is a pathway into the mind of a photographer. It exposes much more than one might expect. It exposes, what you see, what you care about, the depth of your view, who you are and what makes you tick. The camera is both a lens and a mirror. It reveals the world through the heart and mind of the image-maker. A photograph is the photographer personified

As such, a photographer's work exposes a mind, which has been turned inside out.