We See What We Want To See

The following article dramatically shows how we as humans are effected by our preconceived ideas. This not only concerns portraiture but every aspect of photography. Even to something as small as expecting to see grain and then seeing grain.

http://kottke.org/16/03/a-portrait-session-with-a-twist

Really? That is not what I got out of the presentation. The photographers had no preconceived idea about the subject. They were told lies about who he was. I doubt the resulting photographs could be separated in to stereotypes in a post hoc analysis.

Telling a photographer before a shoot that the subject is a millionaire or a recovering alcoholic is not placing a preconceived idea in their minds?

Quote from the introductory blurb for the video. "This is an experiment about expectations. Six photographers are given an assignment to shoot photos of one man. Each photographer is told a different story about the man: he's a millionaire, a lifesaver, an ex-con, a fisherman, a psychic, a recovering alcoholic. As you might expect, the photos taken by the different photographers of the same person are pretty different."

The six photographers were surprised when they saw all their portraits together and wondered that it was the same man.

but did they also do a control test where 6 photographers were all told the same thing about the man. My bet is the images would all have looked different. So what does it prove? Only that all photographers see things in a different way regardless of the subject which I think we knew anyway.

See what David Bailey has to say about being able to photograph someones personality...

Gerald C Koch said:

The following article dramatically shows how we as humans are effected by our preconceived ideas. This not only concerns portraiture but every aspect of photography. Even to something as small as expecting to see grain and then seeing grain.

http://kottke.org/16/03/a-portrait-session-with-a-twist

Click to expand...

Yes,this s called isomorphic correspondence

I think if all 6 people were told absolutely nothing would have gotten 6 different portraits.
just like if 6 different people were told to photograph the same building, or a puppy...
different people, different personal baggage, different ways of handling a subject ...
interesting video though, but I don't know what it has to do with seeing grain when it's not there