The Camera and It’s Imagination
The camera is revered as a neutral arbiter of truth. The camera never lies – and when it does it’s because someone made it lie. The camera has no imagination – it can’t make things up.
Nothing could be further from the truth. What is projected onto the retina at any one time is an incomplete image which our brain processes into a coherent vision. The camera is not designed to be a teller of truth but to create images that please.
It is at night that this breaks down. How we see at night is very different to how we see in daylight. At night a different human imaging system comes into play – one that is unknown to the camera. For the camera it’s always daytime. At night the camera’s superiority in sensing allows its daytime algorithms to render images that no human imagines.
These images have all been taken in Ijmuiden at night. Ijmuiden is a bizarre combination of the industrial interacting with the natural, a fluid landscape. There is an underlying reality in each of the images – the car, the hunk of iron or the building in the image exists. The Camera’s Imagination manifests in how this reality is mediated.
Find out more:
Instagram: @andrew.wajs
