The Photographer's Eye

In the introduction to The Photographer's Eye, John Szarkowski delves into how a photographic image can be more than a documentation of a moment in time. He begins with a short biographical sketch of the early days of the use of the daguerrotype by a large amount of people.
He then goes on to explain the various aspects of a photographic image. he starts by explaining that the object being photographed may be very different than the final exposed image. As Szarkowsi puts it, "the subject and the picture were not the same thing" (p. 3). Szarkowsi also explained that photographs simply reveal what is there. It cannot explain why a scenario is. It can only show that is is. With regards to war photography, Szarkowsi states that the purpose of war photography "was not to make the story clear. it was to make it real" (p.4). Regarding the concept that a photograph is "not conceived, but selected" (p.4), Szarkowski reminds the reader that a photographic image is one of subjectivity, as a photographer with select a subject that he feels is important. Exposure  time is also an important aspect of any photograph. From images of mutant dogs, to the successful photographic image of a galloping horse,  exposure time can affect perception. Vantage point can also affect the perception in a photographic image. A very low or very high vantage point can affect how an image is perceived.
All these aspects of a photographic image are new things to me. I had always viewed a photograph as a captured moment. It had never occurred to me to be able to put a subjective slant on a previously objective medium.