Thursday, August 9, 2007

Errol Morris on Photography



About a month ago, the New York Times posted an essay written by influential documentarian Errol Morris. The essay dissects our personal and cultural associations with photographs, and calls into question the notion of "truth" and "falsity" within the medium. Morris asserts that without contextual information, photographs are neither true or false. They can only be judged as so when accompanied by descriptive written information, or, "with respect to statements that we make about them or the questions that we might ask of them."


Errol Morris filming at Auschwitz for his 1999 film MR. DEATH
Photograph by Nubar Alexanian