October 10th 1996:

Uncovering/Recovering
Photographic Truth

There is no easy way to describe the difference between fact,truth, and emotion. Facts and emotion are "easy," while truth is generally harder to . Facts are about information and detail. Truth on the other hand isn't as easy to nail down.

Scientists, for example persue facts. Assumptions will be made based on other facts, in order to find facts. But when confronted, many scientists will say that they are looking for order or truth. They will use this facts to try to substantiate their beliefs (emotions) about the universe. There is some kind of order. In what way is truth definable? There really is not an acceptable defination of truth in the strictest sense, but I should think that it's fair to say that truth can't entirely be based on either emotion or fact.

Religions, with a few notable exceptions, rely on this very same system of truth to exist. But in their case, the weight has changed from fact to emotion. A religion will usually have some kind of book,set of religious writings, or an oral tradition, that has facts in it as well as metaphorical "facts." If religions were merely fact-based, I doubt that there would be many in existance today. Religion as we all know deals not only with what is able to be proven, but what is unable to be proven. That's where emotion comes in. Faith is a by-product of emotion, not fact. Doubt, fear, joy, hatred, are all emotions in some percentage plus those religious facts work together to bring a construction of personal truth.

But is it truth and the persuit of truth that is most important and will, in the end, satisfy most of us. Photography is unique in that it is nearly possible to satisfy either or neither ingredients of truth. I think that it is possible to find truth, my truth, photographically. It is possible to use what some people have said is just another communication medium and passionately discover/uncover the truth. That is my persuit. I think, that it has always been so. That is what I want to explore, the truth. I do not know how close I'll come, but it's mainly for me to determine

More Later,