Backstory to “Pictures from Plato’s Cave”

Having published one book on painting and two on photography, it was natural that I should be mulling the nature of each medium, so similar in their compositions on flat surfaces. Which, if either, presented reality? And what reality would that be?

Back then, and now, I’ve come to believe that the essential difference between painting and photography is this:

In painting, the artist puts meaning into the picture.

In photography, the photographer invites us to get meaning out of the picture.

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