The Basic Vocubulary of a Visual Language

Emotional impact and engagement are difficult qualities to define but their absence is always obvious to perceive. In order to create images with emotional impact the photographer has to make some form of emotional connection with their subject, they need to empathize with their subject and be truly interested in their lives and situation. The issue for young photographers consumed by visual information is in deconstructing those images to understand their context and intent. Young photographers are so used to being assaulted with pictorial symbolism that they are no longer aware of its power as a language. The American photographer and educator Aaron Siskind holds a preeminent place in the history of American photography. Beginning his photographic career in the 1930s as a social documentarian with the New York Photo League, he ultimately radicalized the medium by emphasizing the photograph as an abstract form of expression and an aesthetic end in itself.