What is intention in photography?

Answer 1

Intention in Photography is best described as the photographers ability to express an opinion or perspective on a given subject through the sequence, context and or collection of a group of images. Sometimes this requires some form of an essay or written component to ground the basis of a body of work, but one could say that the most successful photographs require no additional support in the form of text or other descriptions.

Bearing in mind that images all have the ability to speak on their own, photographers like Robert Frank had the ability to produce images that sometimes had an enigmatic air to them, requiring a viewer to analyze the image carefully, and consider the situation presented.

Probably the most controversial example of "intention in photography", the Family of Man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955 curated by Edward Steichen, presented itself as a "snapshot of the human experience" taken by professionals and amateurs in a way that valorized the way a camera sees the world, no matter whose hands the camera was in. The exhibit was much more contrived than it seemed at the time, and the photographs were so genuinely striking, that there was little or no contestation regarding the issue of fair representation. It is suggested by historians like Allan Sekula, that the underlying intention of this exhibit was not to show how similar all humans and cultures were, but instead to show how western, or how non-communist, the world was. Sekula believes that all images have the power to persuade, to become an advertisement for one thing while appearing to represent something else entirely.

Another classic example cited by semioticians would be the photograph of an anonymous cowboy, sitting on his horse, the desert sun setting behind him, causing his silhouette to become part of the landscape, a classic image of the John Wayne hero/rebel archetype. This image feels so heroic and American, it is almost impossible not to appreciate it. Most people recognize this image without the need for the brand identity that accompanies it. It is an advertisement for Marlboro, a brand that successfully combined the image of freedom and self driven motivation that asks us to decide what kind of American smoker we really want to be. Do we want to be the free and self driven smoker, who makes their own choice? Or do we want to be pushed into a choice by advertising. A little thought here will allow us to see that we are manipulated by advertising one way or the other. Marlboro did something extraordinary in their advertising campaigns, which is something we have seen again and again in advertising even today. They are not promoting a brand, or a product. Instead they are promoting an emotional perspective, a way of life. Given the choice between a tangible product and an idea, most people are drawn to the idea or concept first.

Another clear example of this kind of image persuasion can be seen in the long running battle between Apple Computers and Microsoft Windows. I won't get into this too deeply because there are plenty of examples online to illustrate my point. Apple Computers (it would appear) is not in the business of selling you a computer, an operating system or any kind of specific software. Instead, they offer something less tangible and more personal, something that we can all identify with, and that thing is experience. The experience they are offering? Simplicity. An operating system that is intuitive and software that does what you want without hassle. Most people want a pleasing visual experience, and most importantly, an experience that feels like it isn't forced, but instead feels like it just makes sense. Someone emails me with an invitation to a bbq with a date an d time in the body of the email. I wish I could just click on that date and have it added to my calendar, and I can. That is the kind of thinking that promotes experience over image or product.

Photographers and their photographs may start out with intention, or they may not. Some photographers go out and shoot until they've exhausted the situation and then return to the studio to analyze what they have shot as they begin to build a focus for a body of work. The Family of Man exhibit might be a good example of how a curator can shape a body of images to present a particular view through the use of hundreds of individuals photographs, while in contrast, exhibits like Robert Frank's "The Americans" is an edited collection of 83 images reduced from over 20,000 source photographs all taken by one man during a two year period between 1955-57, with intention of finding out the answer to a simple question which I infer to be "what is American?" For most photographers, intention in photography must be something that is internally developed and thoughtfully presented as a group of images. Ultimately, the reading of your work is up to your audience and because of this, the site of an exhibition can greatly affect the success of your intentions. A photographer should always be prepared to change the way a body is presented with respect to their audience.