Trying to Think...

Iv been thinking a lot about this whole truth+photography issue/idea. After my meeting with Bridie last week it seems that i need to think more about the production of meaning in the photographs and the idea of Verisimilitude...

Verisimilitude:
1. The appearance or semblance of the truth; likelihood; probablity:
"The Play lacked Verisimilitude."

2.Something as, an assertion, having merely the appeance of truth.

Does a photograph have a semblance to the truth? do the people in it look like people? I think what Bridie was trying to tell me is that whether the photograph is strictly "true" or not is irrelevant. The model may or may not be "true" - s/he could be photo shopped skinnier or more tanned etc.
It is more about how a given photograph relates this appearance of truth; and if this appearance of truth creates the emotional response that the photograph is designed to create.

So an assumption i kinda skipped here...that all photographs are designed, are set up to create a specific feeling or response. This is so true of advertising and the more i think about it....of press images, war images...design, fashion...hmmmm

I found this quote yesterday:

"Photos are representations, nothing more and nothing less.”- John C. Dvorak (Writer for PCMag and tech geek)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2014593,00.asp

So if all images are a representations where does that leave the images makers? It goes from being a discussion on whether an image is "true" to whether the image has verisimilitude and if the images are carrying out there designed purpose. So truth becomes a VALUE of an image...and varies for each and every image?

Hold on...

...think of that family picture album. There's that photo of you and Uncle Bob in front of some lake somewhere. You 12 and pulling this goofy face that makes you look like and inflatable chicken. The person that took the photo is stoked cos they caught your goofy face. But you were only like that for 1/125th of a second while they took that shot. You don't look like that the whole time (i hope) in the next 10/15/20/whatever years of your life you were only ever making that face for that 1/125th of second. So HOW much truth value does that image have?

Its you in the picture, its clearly Uncle Bob cos you know he looked like that back then...the background is that lakeside spot you went every year as a kid...you know all this cos you were there....but how much a of a semblance of the truth does this image have because you don't look like that when someone sees you on the street...

But this image appears to be true, all the other visual clues (need a better phrase...) in the image make this image to at least appear true.

my brain hurts i'm going to go lie down...