Academy Award-wining filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the hidden truths behind a series of documentary photographs. In Believing Is Seeing Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris turns his eye to the nature of truth in photography. In his inimitable style, Morris untangles the mysteries behind an eclectic range of documentary photographs, from the ambrotype of three children found clasped in the hands of an unknown soldier at Gettysburg to the indelible portraits of the WPA photography project. Each essay in the book presents the reader with a conundrum and investigates the relationship between photographs and the real world they supposedly record.
During the Crimean War, Roger Fenton took two nearly identical photographs of the Valley of the Shadow of Death-one of a road covered with cannonballs, the other of the same road without cannonballs. Susan Sontag later claimed that Fenton posed the first photograph, prompting Morris to return to Crimea to investigate. Can we recover the truth behind Fenton’s intentions in a photograph taken 150 years ago?
In the midst of the Great Depression and one of the worst droughts on record, FDR’s Farm Service Administration sent several photographers, including Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Evans, to document rural poverty. When Rothstein was discovered to have moved the cow skull in his now-iconic photograph, fiscal conservatives-furious over taxpayer money funding an artistic project-claimed the photographs were liberal propaganda. What is the difference between journalistic evidence, fine art, and staged propaganda?
During the Israeli-Lebanese war in 2006, no fewer than four different photojournalists took photographs in Beirut of toys lying in the rubble of bombings, provoking accusations of posing and anti-Israeli bias at the news organizations. Why were there so many similar photographs? And were the accusers objecting to the photos themselves or to the conclusions readers drew from them?
With his keen sense of irony, skepticism, and humor, Morris reveals in these and many other investigations how photographs can obscure as much as they reveal and how what we see is often determined by our beliefs. Part detective story, part philosophical meditation, Believing Is Seeing is a highly original exploration of photography and perception from one of America’s most provocative observers.
Errol Morris is a world-renowned filmmaker—the Academy Award-winning director of
The Fog of War and the recipient of a MacArthur genius award. His other films include
Mr. Death,
Fast Cheap & Out of Control,
A Brief History of Time, and
The Thin Blue Line.Visit Errol Morris's
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Errol Morris on TwitterThe old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is true to a certain point, a picture does tell a story but is that story always truthful?
Errol Morris takes a close look at a group of documentary photos and tries to answer some of the questions surrounding them. It was Roger Fenton's two photos that really intrigued me. One shows cannonball on the roadway and the other photo shows the road without the cannonballs. While is seems to make sense to me that one photo was staged the big mystery was which one came first, were the cannonballs removed from the roadway or placed there? After extensive research and interviews Mr. Morris traveled to the location of Fenton's photos to find out for himself. You must remember that the photos in question are from the Crimean War, 150 years ago. When he found the location he could then determine the time of day and the direction the camera was facing.
I do want to tell you that while reading this section I kept flipping back to the two photos at the front of the book. The mystery is that compelling, you can't help but get caught up in the mystery. And in the end it is difficult to argue with the evidence that proves which photo was taken first.
As for other photos discussed, some deal with the placement of an object within the photo. Did the photographer move or add an object? How did the placement of the object affect the viewer's reaction to the photo? Is what we don't see in a photo important?
To me one of the most moving photos in the book is the Mickey Mouse doll lying in the streets of Beirut. How did that come to be?
Since I know many of my readers are photographers let me ask you a question? Have you ever moved an object to get a better photo? I know I have and I'm betting many of you have too. Why? We do this because to our eye it would make for a more dramatic shot. We think of photography as an art and it is the end product and the reaction it will have on the viewer that drives us. Is that wrong? Are we deceiving those who view our photos? Would you feel differently if it was a photo journalist who took the photo?
Those are the kind of questions I was thinking as I read this book. The book is very well illustrated so you can study the photos as they are discussed. Errol Morris also takes into account the events and history that goes into each of the photographs.
I can promise you after reading Believing is Seeing you will never look at any photo the same way again.
A copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher for review. I was not compensated for my review, all opinions are my own.
A walk in the park reminded me that Thursdays are a good time for Pat's Things in a Row. These trees were nicely lined up all in a row as were the flower beds. The two blooms were also "in a row".
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