Symbolism in photographic images?

[Donald Miller]

I have observed the work of this photographer for many years and am intrigued by many of his images. I recently encountered this interview and found it to be fascinating.

http://images.google.it/imgres?imgur...3DRTM%26sa%3DX

[neil poulsen]

I don't know about symbolism in general, but here are three examples of "symbolism" that worked.

1) I have a stair photo that I like. It shows a stair as it winds up and out of sight. I don't have a scan of it, so can only describe it. The point is, this photo kind of lifts my spirits.

2) I saw an image last night. It was the standard sort of large leafs photograph with sharp, well defined edges that J.Sexton and others have done. Except that, it caught my eye that the two large front leafs formed the image of a pregnant woman. It was a delayed reaction that caught me by surprise.

3) Smith's Paradise Lost is a symbolic photograph that works for me. Two kids wandering towards a seemingly new beginning, into a new world.

I think that symbolism works best if it catches the viewer and/or the photographer by surprise. Smith's photograph was planned, but it also works.

[Miguel Coquis]

Earth, water, fire, air..., four fundamentals elements sustaining organic life and which disaggregation transforms bodies in something else.
Hard to say where are the limits between what is real, imaginary or symbolic. Any way I found through camera work, some possibilities for developing something that I will call "pensée par formes". Perhaps "visual thinking" may give the meaning.
There is a lot to discover when one starts exploring in to this dimension.
Cambo 8x10
Epson scan
Photoshop 4
Inkjet print/papier d'Arches

--
MACoquis