Photography as Art, or “The Great Photoshop Debate”

I have read in several forums some rather heated arguments regarding the manipulation of photographs, with some people being firm believers that whatever the camera records should be the final image, some people thinking an image isn’t finished until it’s been heavily modified, and countless variations of these two extremes filling out the middle ground. Let me add my two cents, beautifully said by David Fokos;

“Your camera does not record emotion. The job of the photographic artist is to work with the camera’s image, to create drama and add back the emotion. Sometimes this means manipulating the image so that, while it may not be a faithful visual rendering, the result may be a more accurate emotional rendering. You may even want your image to convey a completely different emotion. The choice is yours-that is what making art is all about.”

So there you have it.