Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor. Photography uses foremost radiation in the UV, visible and near-IR spectrum. For common purposes the term light is used in stead of radiation. Light reflected or emitted from objects form a real image on a light sensitive area (film or plate) or a FPA pixel array sensor by means of a pin hole or lens in a device known as a camera during a timed exposure. The result on film or plate is a latent image which is subsequently processed by a developer into a visual image (negative or positive). The result on the FPA pixel array sensor is an electrical charge at each pixel which is electronically processed and stored in a computer (raster)-image file for subsequent display or processing. Photography has many uses for business, science, manufacturing (f.i. Photolithography), art, and recreational purposes.

The word "photograph" was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek φῶς (photos) "light" and γραφή (graphé) "representation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light". Traditionally, the products of photography have been called negatives and photographs, commonly shortened to photos.

Photography is...

• "the art of frozen time... the ability to store emotion and feelings within a frame" -- Meshack Otieno

• "an austere and blazing poetry of the real" -- Ansel Adams
• "the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision" -- Sebastian Smee

• "a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality" -- Alfred Stieglitz
• "the dominant and fascinating and only folk art of the twentieth century" -- Sir John Rotherstein
• "(a means by which we)...learn to see the ordinary" -- David Bailey
• "a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere ..." -- John Szarkowski
• "my meditation" -- Czar Anthony Lopez
• "a strong tool, a propaganda device, and a weapon for the defense of the environment...and therefore for the fostering of a healthy human race and even very likely for its survival." -- Eliot Porter
• "the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression." -- Henri Cartier-Bresson

A camera...

• "is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" -- Dorothea Lange
• "has interesting ideas of its own" -- John Szarkowski.

A photograph is...

• "The basic material of photographs is not intrinsically beautiful. It's not like ivory or tapestry or bronze or oil on canvas. You're not supposed to look at the thing, you’re supposed to look through it. It's a window." -- John Szarkowski.

On creativity

• “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." -- Ansel Adams

• “My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, or the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.” -- Edward Weston

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Mon Jun 28 13:38:58 2010