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| © Pedro Meyer |
Let me elaborate on this documentary image I made some years ago. It is called “ where is the money” which is a translation from Spanish “donde esta la lana” were the word “lana” is both the word for sheep’s wool as well as the slang term for “money”. You can observe that already in a translation from one language to another, the interpretation of what was said in a caption or title, has it’s variations that is nothing to dismiss so lightly.
| In the image, I have changed the order of how the picture is presented by altering the right to left order, which I did in order to match the picture of the man with the money. |  |
© Pedro Meyer |
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I made the light be consistent coming in from left to right into the picture and placed the man with the money in such a way that he would not obstruct the view of the sheep being separated from their heads. The original picture I took was with the light coming in from right to left, and I needed it with the light coming from the opposite side. So I simply switched the image along it’s horizontal axis. |
© Pedro Meyer |
In the image with the man, what I did was to cut him out of the picture, so I could place him anywhere it suited me. Just as you do when people are asked to move from one place to another before taking a picture. Or alternatively, the photographer changes his or her place relation to the subject matter.
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| © Pedro Meyer |
You should be aware that all of the components of the final image happened to occur in that same place and time. I took the picture with the woman cutting off the head of the sheep and turned in another direction and photographed the man asking me for money.
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In the traditional way of looking at such an image, such practitioners would have no objection if the image in question would had been arranged prior to the click of the camera, For instance, I could have asked the man standing there with the money to turn around and stand in the place the same spot as the final image. Or I could have moved my position from where I was taking the picture. In either case, such practices have never been frowned If you liked documentary work, you are going to love digital images.
upon, or considered to be any sort of manipulation. But the fact is that it is as much a change as what I did after the fact with the computer.
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The issue that I think should be foremost on our minds, is in which way would the image I produced alter the information of what the picture conveyed.
If the answer is that the information only enhanced the picture by pulling together two very symbolic elements that in fact took place at that moment in time, then we have a better photograph, not a worse alternative.
What I have often considered quite unsatisfactory about the photographic process, is the importance of luck. Sure one can get lucky and find the confluence, of what my friend Max Kozloff would describe as being the moment when “content and geometry, make an appointment”, but what happens when you don’t have it? So, notwithstanding luck, I can now give preference to the control that I can have over the process, rather than to be solely dependent on luck.