I’ve been thinking about a line often attributed to Robert Capa.
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
I’ve always understood this as more than just physical distance. It speaks to presence. Engagement. A willingness to move toward what matters.
And yet, there is something else I’ve been noticing.
When the frame becomes too narrow, context begins to disappear. What remains can feel more powerful, more immediate, more emotionally charged.
And less complete.
Memes, slogans, and simplified ideas often work this way. They compress complex realities into something easily shared, consumed, and quickly felt.
Photography, by its very nature, excludes far more than it includes.
Artificial intelligence, without sufficient context, produces answers that convince without merit.
It makes me wonder if there are two kinds of closeness.
One that brings us nearer to the subject.
And one that narrows the frame.
They are not the same.
Perhaps the work is to recognize the difference.
To know when to get close enough to feel, and when we need to widen the frame to comprehend.
This is something I’ve been exploring further in my work with artificial intelligence.
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