Errol Morris
[Documentary filmmaker, b. 1948, Hewlett, New York, lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
Photographs are neither true nor false in and of themselves. They are only true or false with respect to statements that we might make about them or the questions that we might ask of them.
Photographs may be
taken—but we are also taken in
by them.
...we do not form our beliefs on the basis of what we see; rather, what we see is often determined by our beliefs.
Quite often photographs gain power from what is omitted from the frame rather than from what is included.
Photography can lead us astray, we can be tricked by ocular proof. And photography—and I believe this is the right verb—can entice us into error.
I think we get into all kinds of difficulty by saying photographs should be taken in a certain way which guarantees their veracity. I think that’s a slippery slope to hell.
Photographs preserve information. They record data. They present evidence. Not because of our intentions but often in spite of them.
People often trust low-res images because they
look more real. But of course they are not more real, just easier to fake… You never see a 10-megapixel photograph of Big Foot or the Abominable Snowman or the Loch Ness Monster.
