Transparent Pictures by Kendall L Walton (part 1)

Exercise 2 - read the first three sections of the essay "Transparent Picture: On the Nature of Photographic Realism" by Kendall L Walton and write a 200 word reflective commentary outlining your views about Walton's idea of photographic transparency.

I started reading the paper by Walton and I have to admit to being far from impressed. I think my scribbled notes at the end of section three sum it up - "total and utter unadulterated rubbish, academic piffle at its consummate best!" (This is the censored version for publication.)

In my defence I had 'trudged' all the way through these sections, getting more and more frustrated by the paragraph, then coming to his final comment "We now have uncovered a major source of the confusion which infects the writings about photography and film..."

Again from my scribbled notes "I dispute the use of the word 'uncovered'; I would respectfully suggest the sentence should read as follows: We now have deliberately created a major source of the confusion which infects the writings about photography and film... -  thus enabling philosophers and academics to waffle on about something for years.

At this point I decided the only way to approach this exercise was to systematically dissect the paper paragraph-by-paragraph in the hope that I could write something that was semi-balanced.

At the end of my dissection, I'd written over 2,500 words and in all honesty it wasn't that balanced! So, time to put the work away and go and do something else...