As it described in the title, this reading was a quote collection
and the exploration written in a diary style by Moyra Davey. Her primary goal
was to find out the meaning of “accident” in photograph and why it is still
important in current practice of photography.
Davey mainly referred to how Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, and
Janet Malcolm defined accident in photography. Benjamin believed it meant a
truth, a tiny truth that could be captured by a camera. Sontag thought it was
about surrealism. She mentioned, “Surrealism lies at the heart of the
photographic enterprise…has always courted accidents, welcomed the uninvited.”
Then for Malcolm, who thought about accident based on psychoanalysis, it
represented the unconscious of our vision.
At first, Davey provided a very subjective definition, saying accident
was something that originally stayed out of the composition. However, after
doing more research, she concluded accident was the “chooser”. That is to say, a
picture and an accident choose when and how to be taken by photographer.
Accident is not literally an accident; instead, it is a selector.
Among the definition given by the
three artists and Davey, I agree Benjamin’s the most. Because of various photo-editing
software, now it is extremely simple to change photos in whatever way we want.
An accident in a photograph tells viewers what was happen at the certain
moment. As how Benjamin thought, it becomes a truth. But I also think this
definition will be changed soon. As I mentioned about the editing software, it
is already capable to fix the “accident”. Photograph has always been used for
recording the truth. But when a truth can be changed or adjusted easily, it is
not a chooser either. Then, what will be the meaning of photograph &
accident?
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