Here again there is a big difference between the 'Artists Reality' and the 'Photorealistic Reality.' Why is this? Is it because we have been engrained with the idea the black and white photographs are inherently more dramatic and emotional? Or is it because the 'Artists Reality' more readably can create something that the 'Photorealistic Reality' cannot? In the case for Plates 7 and 8, Plate 8 being the 'Artists Reality', Plate 8 does something that Plate 7 cannot. Photographs are a means to connecting to the world, and when combined with the creativity, randomness, mood, and style of the artist, photographs like Plate 8 get at something that Plate 7 cannot.

The final examples I would like to use are two photographs taken in Yosemite National Park. More specifically it was taken of Half Dome across the valley from the top of North Dome, which is one of the most popular and most photographed destinations in the valley. Even though North Dome is not the most popular vantage point of Half Dome, look to Glacier Point for that, yet North Dome still receives many visitors. A photographer must strive to make his or her photograph unique. Plate 9 is a snapshot and there has been no attempt to alter the photograph at all. The first thing I notice when looking at this photograph, is the grey granite. The character of the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range is this hard, unforgiving, yet beautiful granite. Glaciers formed Yosemite Valley itself thousands of years ago and it was one of these that slowly carved Half Dome into the shape we see it today. Surprisingly trees hang on to the side of Half Domes sheer cliffs. The granite seems to be painted with different tones of grey and black. In the distance I can see the ridgeline of the Sierra Nevada still glazed with spring snow. A few clouds dot the otherwise open, but slightly hazy blue sky. Patches of snow on the top of Half Dome and hidden behind the trees, melts with the warm afternoon sun, staining the granite black. The framing of the photograph makes me wonder how deep the valley extends. I am left wondering about much in this photograph. Even though Half Dome is in the center of the frame, the photograph seems incomplete. Where the rest of the valley begins and ends?

I am biased to an extent because, as I mentioned before, many of the places in Yosemite have been over photographed to the point where it is hard to find them interesting anymore. While it may be interesting to someone who has not seen much of Yosemite, Plate 9 is an example of something over photographed. It is nonetheless an accurate representation of what is there, meaning this is close to what I saw on that day. I do not believe this photograph to have much meaning past being a representation of what is there.

Plate 10 on the other hand provokes a different response in me. This photograph was taken a few minutes before Plate 9 in the same location, yet through various techniques, it ends up looking and feeling completely different. I see a giant black and grey stained block of granite that rises from a valley floor not able to be seen. It looks as if there was a catastrophic landslide that took half the dome to the valley floor. The trees look as if they have been charred from fire they are so dark. Deep in contrast to the trees is the rough granite; it looks hard and unforgiving. Infinite cracks and lines remind me of a face long weathered by the sun and wind. The granite has been stained by eons of water runoff from winter snow. Still, even in May, Half Dome is topped with a small bit of snow. The sky is an eruption of dark grey dotted by sparse clouds that cast deep shadows on the snow capped mountains in the background. The face of Half Dome looks like an artist's canvas, almost like a Jackson Pollock canvas. It is as if black streaks were let to run down the face and have run together. The west face, which is the right slope from this vantage, looks as if it gently slopes off into the distance. The north face, which is directly visible, is a sheer cliff dropping thousands of feet to the valley floor.

This is a very powerful photograph. Its rich tones and raw blacks evoke a dark sense of just how powerful nature can be sometimes. Half Dome is nature in its raw destructive form. It reminds me, that even with all of our technological advances, our so-called progress, nature can neither be ignored nor can it be fully controlled. The dark sky is luminous; it feels as if it is hanging over me, ready to collapse. The sheer size of Half Dome makes me feel small, almost insignificant. I am nothing in comparison to the sheer rock face. It dwarfs me in every aspect. Even though Half Dome is one of the most photographed subjects in Yosemite, it is possible to make the view unique. This photograph leaps out at me and pulls me in. I suppose the old cliché may be true that things become distinguished, as they get older. Half Dome is one of the most majestic objects in the valley. Looking at the face, a story is told. Once deeply embedded in solid granite, the face has been exposed to light by immense weight of glaciers long melted. This print symbolizes the incalculable power of nature and how sometimes we are so separated from nature itself. Yet it is easy to feel connected, as I do, to this photograph. The north face of Half Dome is a kind of natural canvas holding in it the faces of everyone that has taken a long ponderous gaze at the majestic rock face.

The difference between Plate 9 and Plate 10 is significant. Through these last six examples I hope to have demonstrated an important difference between the 'Photorealistic Reality' and the 'Artists Reality.' Namely I have hoped to demonstrate that the 'Artist's Reality' is much more complex because the artist manipulates the scene from the moment he or she sets up the tripod. The type of equipment, the film, the paper, the exposures, and dark room techniques all contribute to how the scene is manipulated by the artist and to the end result of this manipulation. Let us not forget what the artist himself contributes to this. Even the simplest thing as what kind of mood the artist is in on that day contributes to the end result. Sometimes, as Ansel Adams suggested, you have the end result already visualized in your mind. But in other cases the photographic process becomes much more organic, it takes on a life of its own. All of these factors combine into the truth.

As well as the factors listed above, the truth of the photograph is the meaning. Combined with how specifically the artist manipulates the photograph, and using these techniques, this is how the artist creates meaning in a photograph thus, if not creating, getting at, photographic truth. The six photographs described above, specifically Plates 6, 8, and 10, all have meaning. They get at something their 'Photorealistic' counterparts cannot, specifically meaning. The artist's prints mean something to me because they reflect my truth. They reflect the place, but also something as simple as how I felt in that moment. Because of this it is possible for a photograph to not only include a realistic view of the world but it can also hold something much deeper to all of us. The print gets at something true, not just visually true, but something existentially true, i.e. something about human existence that we can all relate to. In other words, there is more going on than just mountains.

The photograph does this through me. I as the artist pour my creativity into the end result. I pour in things like social issues, personal moods, and how I see that place. By doing this it allows people to relate to the photograph and the place. The object being photographed is no longer just an object; it has become something else, filtered through me. It is this artistic filter that people can relate to more readily. Why? Because it is inevitable that, being human themselves, they will relate to something I do as the artist. If I provoke an emotional response in myself, it stands to reason that someone else may have an emotional response, if not necessarily the same one. Photographs are inextricably connected to the world, but they are also inextricably connected to us. The mood of a print is just as important to me as how well it is printed. It can be the mood of the print that is at the root of the emotional response one gets from the print and it is the emotional response that can be at the root of truth.