Bucks County and the surrounding Delaware Valley is a fertile environment for fine photographers. Last week I went back to the James A. Michener Art Museum to see the exhibit View Finders: Four Photographic Voicesagain before it leaves town and to hear an excellent talk given by Liz K. Sheehan, the show’s curator.

The exhibit features the work of area photographers Michael Smith, Paula Chamlee, Catherine Jansen and Brian Peterson.  I very familiar with Smith and Chamlee’s work, as I have taken their workshop, assisted Michael with printing and have come to know both of them well. I had not seen Jansen’s or Peterson’s photographs before, but had heard about them, especially Peterson, who besides being a fine photographer had served as the Michener’s chief curator from 1990-2013.

Most people are familiar with Smith’s landscape work. In this case, the focus was on portraits made with the 8×10 or 8×20 view camera and displayed as contact prints.  For Smith every millimeter of the photograph matters. It’s all about tones and the rhythm and placement of objects and shapes, as well as tiny portions of the scene that can be the most significant element of his image.

Paula Chamlee uses an 8×10 for most of her work and also makes contact prints. Like Smith to whom she is married, she often views the world in terms of abstract shapes and is concerned with the balance of tones and relationships of the shapes she sees. Smith and Chamlee often photograph in the same locations, but their work is distinctly different.

Much of Brian Peterson’s work was mysterious in nature. According to Sheehan a major area of his focus is on the metaphorical, especially concerning light and water. Images were both analog and digitally based.

Most of the work displayed by Smith, Chamlee and Peterson was black and white. Mostly film based and darkroom printed. Catherine Jansen’s work was the complete opposite. Massive color rectangular panoramic images created in India. Produced by stitching together many related pictures of the same subject and its surroundings with the aid of Photoshop.

All the work was fascinating, but I left the museum thinking as much about the nature of photography today, as much as the pictures I saw.  The question beyond analog vs. digital is what really constitutes a photograph. I mentioned this to Ms. Sheehan after her talk and she agreed that it certainly is an issue for consideration.  What forced me to think about this was the work by Jansen. There’s no hiding the fact by the artist or curator that the final images constructed. They simply wouldn’t be possible without Photoshop.  However if you were not made aware of this you might never know.  Powerful in many cases … yes … photographs … I am not so sure.

Yes, I know almost all photography is a departure from reality in some way. Cropping, burning, dodging and perhaps bleaching as necessary to create a powerful photograph in the darkroom.  Just look at Adams’ dramatic and majestic image Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.  I have seen an initial pilot print and various printings of the image that became more brooding over the years.  Nevertheless, the picture remains the magical singular image that Adams first witnessed in 1941.  To me it is very believable … and yes … very real.

Art can be many things.  It takes vision, technique and talent to be able to create images that visualize “sacred storytelling” as Jansen has done.  I know I couldn’t possibly do it.  But I wouldn’t want to. I like to make photographs that capture what I saw in my mind’s eye.  I also do not wish to alter the component pieces within the image space I am printing.

When I look at photographs I want to feel confident I am viewing a picture of something that really happened or exists in nature. While many digital photographer/printers are honest about what they are creating, I worry that many will hide the facts about what they have created.

It’s time to think about the real differences between analog photography and digital work and call them something very different, because in fact they are very different. Let’s do that and be done with it!

View Finders: Four Photographic Voices is a show worth seeing.  It runs through August 26th at the James A. Michener Art Museum.