Unit 2 Activity 2

‘To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer’s craft. His central problem is a simple one: what shall he include, what shall he reject? The line of decision between in and out is the picture’s edge. While the draughtsman starts with the middle of the sheet, the photographer starts with the frame. The photograph’s edge defines content. It isolates unexpected juxtapositions. By surrounding two facts, it creates a relationship. e edge of the photograph dissects familiar forms, and shows their unfamiliar fragment. It creates the shapes that surround objects. The photographer edits the meanings and the patterns of the world through an imaginary frame. This frame is the beginning of his picture’s geometry. It is to the photograph as the cushion is to the billiard table.’
- John Szarkowski

1) When John Szarkowski says "out of context" he means that his picture is not showing the entire story and is only showing part of it, which can be very misleading. Like in the photograph above many people believe this picture is of people boarding the Titanic, when in fact its a picture called The Steerage of a ship leaving for Europe. 

1) Above is a photograph by Degas from the end of the last century of a women drying her hair. His Paintings 


were shocking to the public because paintings were never of just what the artist saw and they never showed as 


much as his paintings did.