Noun

Singular photography

Plural uncountable

photography (uncountable)

1. The art and technology of producing images on photosensitive surfaces, and its digital counterpart.
2. The occupation of taking (and often printing) photographs.

Derived terms

• digital photography
• flash photography

Related terms

• photographer
• photographic
• phonography

Photography (pronounced /fәˈtɒɡrәfi/) is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects activate a sensitive chemical or electronic sensor during a timed exposure, usually through a photographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically. Photography has many uses for business, science, art and pleasure.

The word "photograph" was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek φῶς (phos) "light" and γραφή (graphê) "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...

• "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

• “Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.” -- Minor White

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Wed Oct 28 13:20:57 2009