Podcast #164 How our context of the photograph defines our understanding

How do we know that something is true or not? It is often defined by the context. When we are judging and looking at photographs the context by which we frame our feedback can make a huge difference in how we appreciate and understand the work. I think many of us at times have used our own egos as a context to judge if we could do better work than what we are looking at. Other times, we might take a less egocentric approach and dive deeper into the work in an attempt to find some meaning or higher understanding. As we critique work, be it our own or the work of others, we need to find a way to identify the context we are evaluating the work and determine if the context is appropriate or limiting our experience of the work. In the analysis of an image, any supposition we enter the conversation with will impact our relationship, but by understanding as much of the bias or context ahead of time as possible, we should be in a stronger position to provide meaningful feedback.