TTG Plus > FAQs > More on FAQ #326


Aren’t all photographs fiction?

  • A. In a word, “No.”

    • “Fiction” typically depicts something that is invented or imagined and not “real.” (Most plaigis, unlike photographs, can accurately be described this way and thus can be considered “fictions.”)

    • Billions of photographs made every day depict something that is “real” (so that ruins the notion that “all” photographs are fiction).

  • B. Photos are “portrayals,” not “fictions.”

    There is an important difference between something being a “portrayal” vs. it being a “fiction.”

    The typical adult has seen millions of photographs that are “portrayals” of things that that person has seen “in real life.”

    As a result of this experience, most members of the general public know that photographs are — at best — imperfect “portrayals” of real-world scenes. (See #2 on this page.)

    • In English the word “portrayal” is used to describe a depiction that portrays “something real” but has some properties that make the depiction different from that “something real.”

    • Again, “fiction” typically depicts something that is not “real.”

  • C. One thing to know about any portrayal, including photos:

    No “portrayal” can fully equal the real thing that it depicts or it wouldn’t be a “portrayal.” It would be the real thing.

    • In other words, one cannot fault the “portrayal” of something for having the very characteristics that make it a “portrayal” (as opposed to being the real thing itself).

    • Photos are included in that statement, since they too are “portrayals.”

 

See also these Key entries:
portrayal
real
realistic
reality
subjective