‘The Nature of Photographs’ Is as Rich as Prose-Poetry

A BOOK REVIEW OF STEPHEN SHORE’S NONFICTION PHOTOGRAPHY PRIMER

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In this era of unlimited image feeds, selfies, and pictures appropriated for tawdry catch-phrases (memes, gifs, etc.), rarely do non-photographers pause to consider the basic elements that unite to compose a photo. We’re all bleary-eyed from bad pictures. Indeed, while many of us ordinary picture-takers can recognize when we take a nice photo, perhaps of a shadow resting in a clavicle, we can’t pinpoint why that particular image turned out to be so effective, and why the picture that we took of our foot turned out to be just an unattractive photo of our foot. To rein in chance and increase the probability of taking good pictures, we need to understand the nature of photographs — to see how what they’re made of affects how we experience them. And that’s what the nonfiction text, The Nature of Photographs: A Primer by Stephen Shore offers the rookie image-taker: an introduction to the intrinsic ingredients of photographs and how to identify these features when contemplating pictures.

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