Light and Time?

"John Berger once said, “What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” Well John, I couldn’t disagree more and this is why.

At it’s bare minimum, photography only utilizes light and time. Light, falls onto the sensor/film at a recordable level that our camera can then process. Time is needed to record this action. Whether it is a hummingbirds wings frozen by a time frame of 1/2000 of a second, or a landscape shot in total darkness in 30 minutes. Time is essential. But, by reducing Photography to it’s bare minimum, we discount a world of elements that go into photography.

All that is needed for a runner to run is, well, nothing. Then is running nothing? In the same regard, photography is not just light and time. Well, what is it then?

Photography is universal. There are no language barriers. You don’t need to speak English to tell me about this image. She is, a beautiful young girl, doing what young kids do. We don’t need language to understand photography.