#1 in a series of background briefs


Photographs as “Records”

Explained here: Why viewers ask, “Is this photo real?”

  • A. This is key to understanding TTG:

    Adults in the 21st century have seen millions of visual images and have compared the images they see to the real world...

    and thus they are photographically literate enough to “read” any photo as long as it is not doctored and not misrepresentative.

  • B. What does that mean for TTG?

    It explains why TTG is only about celebrating undoctored records and never about equating photographs with “reality.” (See “F” and “G” below.)

  • C. Why does the photo have to remain undoctored to be trusted?

    Because if it doesn't remain undoctored, then viewers cannot rely on their usual mental tools for “reading” undoctored photographs (see “A”)—

    — and they will not be confident that they can “read” (trust) the photo.

  • D. What does TTG mean by “undoctored record”?

    “A photo showing only what the camera lens saw at the time of exposure.”

    Regardless of what the photographer wishes they had photographed, every photograph either does or does not depict only what the camera saw at the time of exposure. Viewers increasingly want to know which one they're seeing, “does” or “does not.”

    TTG's definition of “undoctored” | FAQ on “undoctored”

    • Details:

  • E. Busting Myth #1

    Myth: Viewers don't care whether a “Wow” photograph is undoctored unless it's in a “news” setting.

    Reality: Viewers are plenty curious about “Wow” photographs outside of “news” settings.

    In the age of AI, anytime viewers see an impressive image that looks like an undoctored photograph, they will be curious about whether it is an undoctored photograph.

    “The greatest challenge of 21st-century photography”

  • F. Busting Myth #2

    Myth: Viewers ask whether the photo they’re seeing is “real” because they naively believe that that knowledge will tell them whether the photo is “an equivalent to reality.”

    Reality: Viewers aren't naive: no photo is equal to “reality.” Viewers ask whether the photo they're seeing is “real” because they want to know whether the photo is undoctored: they want to know whether they can read (and trust) the photo as a record.

    See also the Key page on the term “real”

  • G. Busting Myth #3

    Myth: Since photographs can never be equivalent to reality, it doesn’t matter when photographs are doctored or aigmented.

    Reality: Actually, it matters a lot, because doctoring or aigmenting any record always ruins its value AS a record—

    —and whether a photograph has value as a record is one of the first things that 21st-century viewers want to know when they see any image that looks like a remarkable photograph (it's why they ask “Is this real?”).

  • H. Visual records are nothing new

    Visual “records” — that is, pictorial recordings of things — have played an important role throughout human history, from the cave paintings done tens of thousands of years ago, to the rendering of the 1066 appearance of Halley’s Comet in the 950-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, to the memorable photos and videos of astronauts walking on the moon.

  • J. Undoctored records are easy to make

    Billions of new photos made every day start out as “undoctored records” (most people would be unhappy if their devices did not by default make a “record” of exactly what the camera is seeing).

    However, before they are shown to others, many photographs undergo changes that mean they are no longer undoctored — whether those changes are done instantly in the device or later, to the photographer's taste.

  • K. Undoctored photos can still be misrepresentative or deceptive

    That’s why the Trust Test has both

    P7     (“not misrepresentative of the scene depicted”) and

    P8     (“not deceptive about the circumstances under which the photo was made”).

    FAQ on P7 | FAQ on P8


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{“I am here. Those three words contain all that can be said — you begin with those words and you return to them. ‘Here’ means on this earth, on this continent and no other, in this city and no other, in this epoch I call mine, this century, this year. I am here — and everyone is in some ‘here’ — and the only thing we can do is try to communicate with one another.”}
— Czeslaw Milosz