The art of making photos

some phenomenological reflections

Thomas S. Eberle

pp. 311-320

in: Michael Barber, Jochen Dreher (eds), The interrelation of phenomenology, social sciences and the arts, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

The goal of my paper is to analyze the act of making – not just taking – photos, with the aid of phenomenological concepts. Taking pictures presupposes a photographic gaze, which gets combined with personal experience, technical expertise, and other kinds of practical knowledge. The photographer's intuition is coupled with more or less explicit, often highly routinized reflections on the choice of motives, their context and arrangement, proper perspectives, the degree of light as well as the interplay of light and shade, the combination of different forms and colors, the technical possibilities of the equipment at hand, and so on. Taking pictures also implies to press the button – and this is an act in time. Adopting a strictly subjective perspective, the doing of making photos is considered as an activity in its own right. It is explored if the photographic gaze represents a special cognitive style, how the photographer "tunes in" with natural and social rhythms, and what makes doing photography an art form.