The other day an old college of mine got involved in a dispute over the term “direct from camera”.  His view is that this adds value to the image produced and whether this is correct or not is not for me to say – it is his opinion and is free to hold it.  What was more interesting for me was the debate about what is and what is not a valid image.  Now I know this really is a really old chestnut and one I have no intention of reopening but this kept going through my head when I made this two images this morning.

They were captured at Saltaire, a world heritage site in West Yorkshire.  Nether image is real, in the sense that both have been significantly worked on, yet both also capture what I saw when I captured the image.   Now it could be argued that if I saw something in black and white then perhaps I should seek medical attention but that is not the point.  We create images within our brain and both accurately reflect what I saw when I captured the image.  They also reflect what I feel about Saltaire at the time and at the time of their creation.  Maybe in the future I might have a different take but today that is how I want to view things.   I suspect that this approach has come about from spending the best part of four years developing as an artists rather than simply as a photographer – another chestnut there – but what it does mean is that I view images in a very different way.