The 'I' level

Strong images not only have a clear message and appeal to our feelings, they also tell us a lot about the photographer through the ‘I’ eye. The photographer can express himself with and through his images. The more intensely he identifies with his pictorial language, the more the images tell the viewer about him and his view of the world. The choice of subject matter is very important in this area. Whereas a photographer may be able to say very little about himself with landscape and architecture shots, he can reveal significantly more through e.g. nude, erotic and fetish photographs (for example about his attitude to sexuality).

However, not only can we read the language and the attitude of the photographer in the images, the viewer also reveals a lot about his own attitude to the depicted subject matter through his reaction. The more extreme the topic, the more polarised the reactions of the viewers. This touches on the wide field of art that is difficult to grasp and which makes use of photography for other reasons than the art-orientated photographer.

This area is strongly subjective and consequently all statements are unclear. For this reason, most photography instruction manuals lack specifications about how one can evaluate the quality of such images. In terms of its basic principle, the ‘I’ level corresponds to the self-revelation of the communication model by Friedemann Schulz von Thun.