audiobook: stories in photographs – eru narayana

stories in photographs

eru narayana

“as a photographer, the creative act i am most concerned with is the ordering of relationships between photographs-as-symbols and things symbolized, in ways which give symbols meaning and credibility. between the photographer and the viewer symbolism plays a dual role. for the viewer, photographs-as-symbols are primary for they are what stimulate the senses directly. the things symbolized are secondary because they are one step removed from the things perceived. for the photographer, things perceived are primary, photographs-as-symbols are secondary. things perceived have substantive value upon which the photographs-as-symbols depend. symbols vary in their qualities from the trivial to the profound. they have a life-force of their own. great symbols, whether they are photographic, verbal or mathematical, can influence the lives and beliefs of people for thousands of years. for example, one need only to refer to the works of the leading philosophers, artists and religious men of ancient cultures and the great scientists of the past three hundred years whose symbols maintain a living quality independent of their own lives and deaths.” –wynn bullock, the photograph as a symbol, the artichoke press, mountain view, ca, 1976

this audiobook is meant to serve as a bridge between the viewer and the photographer. by presenting stories associated with the creation of various photographs the aim is to explain ‘things’ perceived by the artist during the process of creation of the photograph and what the photograph symbolises. -eru narayana, may 2022

introduction