The Gesture of Photographing

Abstract

Phenomenological in its method, the essay examines the movement of a photographer, camera, object to be photographed, and us, the observers, making no assumptions about the relationships among these components. The movement is seen to exhibit a pattern, which in turn is seen to resemble a philosopher's thought process as s/he seeks a position in the world. The essay concludes by identifying photographing as what the ancient Greeks called 'theoria', a gesture of seeing.