Featuring PHOTOgraphic magazine

MOST AVID PHOTOGRAPHERS devote considerable time and energy to studying their craft and refining their skills, with the goal of improving the “quality” of their images. Certainly, our primary mission at Photographic is to provide sound instructional material that enables our readers to become more proficient photographers. In defining “quality,” however, it’s all too easy to get hung up on technique and ignore the emotional impact—either positive or negative—of the images we create.

All this came to mind recently, when we received a letter from a reader who was offended by an image that was used to illustrate an article on our website. Without compounding the offense by reproducing the photograph here (we’ve already removed it from our website), let’s just say that the reader in question felt as though he was “kicked in the gut” when he first saw the image. This man’s strong reaction had nothing to do with composition, f/stops or shutter speeds—i.e. the technique used to create the offending image—but rather its content. No matter that we first ran this shot in the magazine back in 2003 and this was the first complaint we received. The point is that with our focus on technique, we regretfully neglected the emotional impact of this photo.

On a more positive note, we recently met with a photographer whose work exemplifies how technically superb photographs with an emotional message can be used for the betterment of mankind by instigating social change. She recently visited South Africa on behalf of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, and returned with some powerful imagery that is sure to assist the AHF in conveying the importance of its work to the world.

We plan to feature a gallery of these images in an upcoming issue of Photographic.

Point of view, Ron Leach, October, 2005