LUIGI CASSINELLI

Photographer






Primal Grit

cover of portfolio titled primal grit exhibiting self-portraits

7 Steps Into My Photography








In And Out Of The Moment

video essay titled in and out of the moment








Women I Met

cover of essay titled women I met








Enduring Truth

cover of essay titled enduring truth








On Fiction

essay on fiction








Control, Circe's Obsession

essay on obsession for control








Hard City

cover of portfolio titled hard city








Conceptual Borders

cover of essay titled conceptual borders








What Is a 'Photo?' What Is a Digital File?

ur-photograph showing one status of an abacus








On The Press

portfolio of published work, editorials and campaigns






The Photographer's Choice

Cover of The Photographer's Choice by Luigi Cassinelli

2015 • 6 x 9 • 116 pp. • 39 illus. • $19.95

ISBN 978-0-9861801-0-1

“Dad, what is a photographer?” My daughter's question forced me to confront one widespread misconception. Photography was born when inventors succeeded in preserving the original interaction among light, matter, and human observation; so why does almost everyone in the arts, publishing industry, and education community call a numeric code designed for mutation, a photograph? In The Photographer's Choice I present my answer to this question and to my daughter's.

Digital technology is not responsible for confusion and manipulation; human decisions are accountable for ambiguity. Long before the advent of digital imaging, visual fanatics fostered the mystification of photography with doctored printing. Photography deserves semantic precision; today as in 1827, a photograph must be differentiated from generic terms like "image," "picture," and "print." The Photographer's Choice proposes a definition of the term "photograph" and introduces the term "wish-graph." Once the topic is cleared from misconceptions, this book examines the knowledge that true photographic observations disclose.

The Photographer's Choice confronts more than photographers' choices. This book questions core values in a moment when we are steering into virtual labyrinths with no real cord. Artists, editors, parents and children, photographers, scientists, and teachers face the same choice: reality or a swift denial of it?