"The Nature of Photographs"

"The Nature of Photographs" is a book where the main question is: how to look and understand a photograph? The book was written by the photographer Stephen Shore in the 90's. According to Stephen Shore, a photograph can be viewed in several levels: the physical level, the depictive level and the mental level. On the first level, physical level, a photograph is a print. Is at this level that the viewer will read the photograph and try to understand it, the context that the viewer sees the photograph will affect the meaning that he will make of it. The depictive level, second one, is where the world is captured changing in four different ways: flatness, frame, time and focus. These four different ways will define the photograph depictive content and structure. The final level, metal level, is the viewers interpretation of an image, is where we construct mental images according to the light.

 “The artist starts with a blank page and must fill it. The photographer starts with the clutter of the world and must simplify it.” – Stephen Shore

Source:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Nature-of-Photographs/Stephen-Shore/e/9780801857201

http://www.phaidon.co.uk/store/photography/the-nature-of-photographs-by-stephen-shore-9780714845852/

"The Nature of Photographs" by Stephen Shore