TTG Plus > More on Viewpoint #1


More on photos as “records”

  • D. What does TTG mean by “undoctored record”?

    “A photo showing only what the camera lens saw at the time of exposure.”

    Every photograph either does or does not depict only what the camera saw at the time of exposure.

    Viewers want to know which one they’re seeing, “does” or “does not.”

    TTG’s definition of “undoctored” | FAQ on “undoctored”

  • E. Visual records are nothing new

    Visual “records” — that is, pictorial recordings of things — have played an important role throughout human history.

    Some of the best-known visual records include the cave paintings done tens of thousands of years ago, the rendering of the 1066 appearance of Halley’s Comet in the 950-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, and the memorable photos and videos of astronauts walking on the moon.

  • F. Undoctored records are easy to make

    Billions of new photos made every day start out as “undoctored records.”

    Most people would be unhappy if their smartphones did not by default make a “record” of exactly what the camera is seeing.

    However, before they are shown to others, many photographs undergo changes that mean they are no longer undoctored — whether those changes are done instantly in the device or done later, to the photographer’s taste.

  • G. Undoctored photos can still be misrepresentative or deceptive

    That’s why the Trust Test has both

    P7     (“not misrepresentative of the scene depicted”) and

    P8     (“not deceptive about the circumstances of the photo”).

    FAQ on P7 | FAQ on P8


“I am here. Those three words contain all that can be said — you begin with those words and you return to them. ‘Here’ means on this earth, on this continent and no other, in this city and no other, in this epoch I call mine, this century, this year. I am here — and everyone is in some ‘here’ — and the only thing we can do is try to communicate with one another.”
— Czeslaw Milosz