Ellie Rankin
GOOGLE : 'WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY' TO YOU?
Updated: May 22, 2020
I took to google and posed the simple question of 'What is photography' in order to start to get me thinking in terms of the medium in a more abstracted and inquisitive way. In these early stages of this exploration, I wanted to look at the question in an extremely stripped back and simplistic way, unpicking the phrase word by word. Discussing this statement through dialogue is one thing, which we have been doing a significant amount in these early stages amongst our group and tutors, however I wanted to see what the internet would simply tell me when asked the straightforward question. The answer - ambiguous or not? -
This activity did make me think about, and question photography's position within our world. Looking into the different ways we use it in a range of different situations. This being in an everyday sense, through our smartphones, and amateur photography, to the opposite extreme...studying it...using it as an art form...unpicking it...pushing its boundaries...(like myself...and those on this course... responding to this question... in this brief...)
These two polar opposite attitudes to photography are adopted by millions of individuals all across the world, and to me, that is extremely fascinating and has great potential to be explored visually.
Photography bonds us all one way or another. Regardless of whether we are interested in it on a more than surface level, or we have a more straightforward and representational relationship to it...it is this that fascinates me greatly.













ABOVE: "WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY?" - EXPLAINED SIMPLY BY THE INTERNET!