The Things That Get Lost

Sometimes I wonder what I’m missing. What I’m missing when I’m making photographs. When my attention is to the viewfinder not directly on the subject.

My bemusement is increased today because what I see in the camera is a digital reenactment of what has already happened. An electronic representation of a reality that I will never see.

It’s similar to an earlier problem that was never resolved.

Photographers who used a single-lens reflex camera, such as those from the Nikon F series, never actually saw the image they captured. Instead, at the critical moment of exposure, they were met with a black screen as the mirror flipped up, blocking their view. The scene captured on film remained unseen by the photographer's eyes, hidden in darkness.

The screen still goes black with most mirrorless cameras. The same result as the SLR just without film. Now it’s electronic. And twice as troubling.

At least while shooting with an SLR photographers could see their subject directly through the lens, akin to looking through a window.

Now, with digital cameras, the process involves capturing light through the lens only to have it intercepted by an electronic sensor. This sensor then converts the image into a digital signal, displayed on another digital screen acting as the viewfinder.

That the screen momentarily goes black is inconsequential. The imagery presented on the small electronic screen of the viewfinder is, after all, far from reality.

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