The Photography Issue

If you’re reading this, chances are your experience with looking at photographs goes as far as double-tapping a picture that you like and moving on. There’s nothing wrong with that.

This issue of the Dalhousie Gazette invites you to slow down and take your time, as the paper takes you through the work of five photographers from different backgrounds. Our hope is that you will gain a deeper appreciation for the art of visual storytelling, and your first remark after seeing someone’s photographs will no longer be “nice photos, you must own an expensive camera.”

The camera that you see in the header of this post is over half a century old. It spent many years chronicling a person’s life, but has seen more years tucked away in a drawer. Only recently was it saved from that drawer. The owner’s grandchild now uses it, and it continues to deliver its promise that it will capture whatever it is pointed at. And that’s really all a camera can promise you, no matter how cheap or expensive.

I invite you to immerse yourself in these photo essays – these short glimpses of the human condition through various eyes – and read them as you would a novel. Let your eyes flow along the compositions and allow yourself to embrace what feelings ensue.

Don’t just see; look.