Please respond to the following three quotes.
“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.” ~Richard Avedon.
“You don't take a photograph, you make it.” ~Ansel Adams
“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.” ~John Berger
These quotes address the idea of the role of the photographer in a photograph. Avedon and Berger both write that photos record more of what the photographer wanted the image to say, and what that says about the photographer than about what exactly the image is of. Ansel Adams says that the photo is made, not taken, which also talks about how a photo is more what the taker makes it than what the subject is in real life. I agree that photos can lend a lot of information of the photographer's perspective when taking the image. However, I think that there are times when there is no thought process from the photographer other than capturing something that was before them. The photo still says something about their perspective, as it places them in a scene, but if they had no plans beyond the framing of the shot and what was focused on, which also talk about the photographer's design, i think that they are a little more distanced than what these quotes were saying.
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