A thought

When it comes to aesthetics in photography, are we trying to make it as real to real life as possible, or as divorced from real life as possible, and why?

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In praise of intelligent auto mode

I’ve been shooting medium sized JPEG on Lumix g9, Leica-Lumix 12mm f/1.4 lens, in intelligent auto mode a lot. And this is the interesting thing:

The photos look incredibly real to real life.

Based on my LCD screen and just looking at reality with my own two eyes, it looks quite accurate in terms of color, tone and rendition.

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Memory augmentation or arts creation?

With memories:

It seems when our photographs are faded, false colors, film, black and white, etc … the obscurity of these old photos better act as a stimulus to our memories.

Why is this? Well this is my theory:

When your photographs are a bit obscure, it forces your brain to fill in the blanks, and forces you to THINK MORE to REMEMBER MORE.

Why is Japanese Porn censored?

For example, I read that the reason why they blurred the genitals of the “pornographic” Japanese Shunga Prints it was because of this:

When the private parts of two people in a drawing are having sex, it stimulates your creativity and imagination, actually turning you on more.

For example even in modern Japanese porn, the private parts of Japanese sex actors are blurred. Why? My theory:

When the genitals are blurred, it turns you on more.

For example why is it that when we see a sexy woman with cleavage, or under boob, or side boob, or nipples through a shirt, etc … this is more sexy than to see her straight-up naked?

It is perhaps our human desire for temptation, desire, and obscurity is more interesting to us? Maybe this is where mystery movies and novels are so interesting to us… we get more engaged and interested because we are trying to solve the mental puzzle in our minds.

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What is the purpose of the aesthetics of photos?

Certainly we care about the aesthetics in the photograph because we desire to make beautiful photos. But for what? Towards what ends?