Chapter One

Throughout chapter one, Charlotte Cotton focuses on the purpose and importance of creating an image. She says "The act of artistic creation begins long before the camera is actually held in position and an image fixed, starting instead with the planning of the idea"(21). Many examples of planned and staged images are shared in this chapter. From the different photographs, I learned a great amount about the many strategies photographers use to plan for their image. For example, Gillian Wearing's work, Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say, exhibited partial planning and while the rest was left to the subject. She knew where and what she would be photographing, and though she had an idea of what she wanted, she was unaware of what would be written and the emotions that would be displayed. Unlike Wearing, photographer Georges Rousse took a much different approach in the planning of his images. Rousse would transform scenes by painting an area of the space a specific shape then angle the camera to complete the illusion. When first looking at the photo, one might assume the shape was made after the original photograph was taken, however the shape was carefully planned. Chapter one had several demonstrations and techniques that go into making an image. It shows the importance to planning rather than just taking meaningless photos. This will be especially important when thinking about our upcoming project.