Photography: Doorway to a World Waiting to be Recorded*

"A photograph is a picture, likeness, or facsimile obtained by photography." More than an attempt to record an event and fix it to an image, photography is the application of combined optical and chemical phenomena.¹

Photography, derived from its Latin components photos and graphos, is, in its literal sense, "the recording of images with light." Light is what makes photography possible. However, the picture is not always an exact image of what is seen, because there are "differences in what the eye perceives and the reaction of the photographic process to light."²

It is not merely a recording device, as well, so as to produce a tangible duplicate of history. It also serves as an effective medium of mass communication, and creates a productive arena for argument and discussion. Photography is such a great phenomenon that is able to touch a wide array of fields: art, journalism, aesthetics, advertising, optics, history and other sciences.

The beauty of photography lies not only in its process, and product, but also in the continuous processing of its product — the photograph.

Any photograph — its meaning, its effectiveness as an image, and value as an object — is always dependent on the historical, cultural, social, and technical contexts within which we 'read' it. Thus, the 'fixed' image fluidly undergoes a continuous metamorphization because of different interpretations. Therefore, a photograph is not merely about sight, but about insight. It is a mirror not of a literal reality but of a super- or spiritual reality.³

The photograph — the act of taking it, as well as the end product itself — "is a distinctive cultural product which reflects a culture's way with the world."¹¹