Gail Timms
Falmouth University MA Photography
Contextual Research
Theory in practice
“Composition must be one of our constant preoccupations, but at the moment of shooting it can stem only from our intuition, for we are out to capture the fugitive moment, and all the interrelationships involved are on the move.”
Bair, N. (2016) ‘The decisive network: Producing henri cartier-bresson at mid-century’, History of Photography, 40(2), pp. 146–166. doi:
accessed April 17 2018
I am very guilty of trying for perfection, taking too long to find the right composition that often the shot is gone. Probably why I have stuck to indoor portraits in very controlled situations and not street photography.
"Composition cannot be planned, nor can it be added in afterwards. Cropping will invariably make a good shot worse and is unlikely to make a bad shot better. Camera settings shouldn't be something the photographer even thinks about – taking a photograph should be like changing gears in a car."
I need to learn to be better at finding reactive skills, and stop trying to be perfect
Exploring contexts
Strategic Choices
This week our group had to create a gallery for our work in progress. Looking at the text from The camerawork essays by John Walker 1.
This piece of work contextualises how an image or piece of art changes the context when it changes either place or form in which it is displayed. For example when a photograph is taken and then either displayed as a print in a album or in a book, or up on a wall in a frame or canvas it can depending on the place it is displayed, have a different meaning. Or if text or other images are added can bring a whole new meaning to it.
This is also part of a consideration when you take a photograph. When I looked at creating a gallery for my work in progress, I knew that a story type platform would not work with my images. They do not in a group tell a story and so I needed to create a gallery that focused on each image individually.
I looked at various sites to do this including Redframe and Wordpress, spent a long time trying to learn the platform and then went back to what I knew. Wix. As my current website www.beebeau.co.uk is with Wix, I knew the basic of the platform and so creating a new one was much quicker. I decided as it was forever changing and going to be kept, instead of paying for another site I decided to do it as a page on my MA journal site.
Part of this week, after creating this site we shared them on the webinar for peer and tutor feedback. General feedback from peers and tutor where about the black backgound, some liked it others felt it was too dark. Also arrows made it look like it was aimed at low intelligence so when looking at the website galleries I played around with other alternatives. I have settled on a brown backgound as it still gives the moody classy look but is less harsh to look at. One of the other feedback from tutor was had I thought about gilt frames, I have tried a few options but mostly ones I have found that would be suitable are too low res for the size of image I would like. So for now I am adding a border and strike to emulate a frame look. Other feedback included about the fonts and the titles used. I have decided that I don't want to lead people to think in a certain way but to interpret the images as they see them like in the essay from John walker, what is happening around people and the moods they are in will determine what emotions are lit when they view the images. And the fonts I used a less loud one with no capital texts so they will be easier to read.
1. Walker, John. A, (1997) Context as a Determinant of Photographic Meaning from The Camerawork essays: context and meaning in photography pp.52-63, London: Rivers Oram Press.
"Some photographers, like William Eggleston perhaps have seemed to build photographic portfolios through what sometimes appears to be little more than photographic geniuses. An uncanny ability to find remarkable beauty and poetry in the ordinariness of everyday life and translate this through an irritatingly effortless and understated visual style"
Eggleston also chose to work with certain camera formats which influenced the rhythm of how he worked and hence the images he made and his choice to print his images with a certain process deliberately complimented the mundane Americana within a lot of his images.
On the other hand, many practitioners combine institution, chance and unpredictability by confining themselves to a rigid strategy or briefs"
I feel while analising this subject matter that I fit more into the rigid strategy as opposed to cahce, the only real time I would use chance is when I am taking the family out with camera in hand or when I have my Iphone in hand to snap a moment occurring.
My photography as it has evolved has become much more planned than chance. Chance would not allow me to be as creative in the planning and ideas that I have to pursue.
This week we had a peer to peer micro challenge. I was challenged by Gem to
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Pick a colour ( the first one that came into my head
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Go for a walk close to home
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Look for that colour and take upto nine photographs.
They can be seen here
There were also links to a web page the great good Magazine, talks about How photography can help cultivate Mindfulness and gratitude.
I could relate to this piece of work because when I first was told about this task and picked the colour red, I asked myself how on earth am I going to find Red in the middle of fields when I like. But as I walked out the door I started noticing so much more that I would ever have seen had I not have been doing this task. Seeing how much red was in the broken bricks or the rusty chain, even the lost price of plastic toy stood out. The most amazing thing I saw was a perfect little red flower, I named it resilient as we have just had a period of -14 degrees and lots of snow and this little flower 1 not only survived but was just perfect. So practising mindfulness I was able to appreciate and accept that moment in time without thinking of past or present was very relaxing and something I intend to practice.
Jill Suttie discuses about how mind wandering, depending on what you are thinking about can lead to depression and unhappiness, but mindfulness, thinking of the moment now has research that strenthens the thoughts and that it is much better for you and is linked to well being, creativity as well as better goals and productivity. Which I feel is why a lot of photographers practice this method with reportage or documentary images. Depend on the mood they are in will obviously depend on what they see, or subconsciously want to see.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_mind_wandering_may_be_good_for_you
I look forward to reading more about this as one of my mottos is STAY FOCUSED, I have a natural ability to daydream and wander into another place and am easily distracted so hopefully I will acieve a better concentration span .
1 ©Gail Timms
Oral Presentation
I think this has got to have been one the most challenging weeks so far. The last time I had to do a presentation was many years ago so I was feeling very nervous.
One of the time consuming factors in this task was actually finding what method to use.
My choices as I saw them were PDF slides, off the cuff talking or design a video. So me, being me, opted for probably the most challenging of them all, a video.
First step was to find suitable software that wouldn't blow my mind. I did a google search for what would be a good app to go with my Macbook pro as I spend a lot of time on it and knew it would be favoured for using when I had a few minutes. I didn't even know there was already software on it called 'Imovie' I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't take the brains of an archbishop to figure out basic commands so I set on the journey of building my video.
On completion we had to book our webinar with Jesse and Gary and present. In my case add my link
It was to be ten minutes long and that was a very long ten minutes. I then took a deep breath and waited for the feedback.
Starting with myself I first noted how much I hated my own voice! I am proud of being southern but not when I hear my cockney accent. I also noted how where I recorded my voice at different times it was very gappy and didn't flow. I also spotted a pixilated image.
One of my fellow students Stuart, suggested I stand up when speaking to get a little life in my voice and stated that I should be proud of my work and leave it on screen longer without the use of Ken Burns movement of the images. Also to cut the amount down, he also suggested I link images to my story line.
Jesse then added that it may help to write a script and that he liked my chatty method of presenting off the cuff and suggested sticking with that.
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He suggested that I add more detail about why I am showing that particular image.
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He liked the studio tour but suggested shortening that and start sitting in the studio and show my face.
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He also suggested to slow things down and think about more what I am trying to say like the Indian image.
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He suggested I talk more about my inspirations at the start of the presentation and more about the individuals and not era.
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Talk about the influences with Victorian poses and suggested I look at Julia Margaret Cameron.
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Ask myself why I want to do nostalgic photography and why would people want to pay for children to look like they were from 100 years ago.
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To add quotes on screen next to images at the same time.
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To add new images I have completed since starting this course.
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Identify resources that I am looking into.
Gary then added. A suggestion to look at Seduced by Art. Also the book by Hockney and how the use of tools affected his practice overall.
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To break boundaries and look at what else is around my studio and to maybe add before and after shots.
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Not to show floor.
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He suggested I look at Jill Greenberg, John Millais, Bill Viola and Lady Dementina Hawarden.
Overall I am on the right track. I felt really proud that both everyone felt my images where strong.
So to conclude, the whole process was slightly terrifying to start but I have found that the process has built my confidence in not only using new technology, but by talking in public and having professional people critique you. I found the task a little confusing to start, not knowing what to expect or what was expected. I found it a great experience and look forward to putting that advice into the new version of my presentation.
Collaboration
Image 1 ©Gail Timms 2018
You would have thought that "collaboration" would be easy. Take a group of people who do not know each other, chuck them together with a medium to communicate that no one really knows and ask them to come up with a presentation of their choice.
The aim of the collaboration I thought was to come up with a piece of work that you could say had multiple people involved to a defined role and an agreed end result.
Ashley and Alison had already paired up and so I asked to join them. Stuart asked to join at the end of week but no one seemed to see his messages.
I think problems with canvas meant they didn't see messages or something and so it was very long winded to get a reply.
Hope and Feathers was the name and the idea was to use birds and feathers. I offered up some of my portraits and asked what kind of thing to do? I ended up putting feathers as eyes. "Image 1" I had intended to alter it and edit it more but the image seemed of high enough standard to the other team members even though only one person replied. Canvas was holding up our team work
Having no real guidance I just went with ideas and hoped that my team liked my image. I showed the image as an example of the kind of thing I had in mind and it seemed fine so I moved on. It was to represent hope but the eyes being the window to the soul.
The next Image I made was a symbol of hope being the Robin. I made a rough composite with a child 'Image 2 'and again put on the canvas page for feedback. No one gave any feedback to change it again so I assumed it was fine, the girls said they liked my images so no changes where made.
image 2 ©Gail Timms 2018
On the third image we wanted to represent the endangered birds so I composited the birds into an image with a child looking out to sea "image 3". The idea was to say that unless we actually do something the only thing left will be the birds in an old photograph.
All in all the topic of collaboration I found to be frustrating at best and infuriating at worst. It was really hard to work on vague thoughts and should we collaborate again I feel we need to much more organised in making time for the project. Communicating and giving feedback so that the project can progress. The end result did end being a collaboration in the image contains thoughts from different people images mixed together and a presentation. But it didn't really feel much of a team effort, more a bunch of individuals trying to be involved in something. That said, I am happy with my image results and it has given me thoughts to add more intrigue into my images.
Reflecting it to my practice it has shown me that when working in collaboration with other people communication is vital, as is ongoing contact to make sure the project is heading in the right direction.
Image 3 © Gail Timms
Week 3 Manufacturers and Developers
Questions asked in this section; In relation to your own practice and professional activity:
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What is the impact of ever changing technology? With film you have to be so technically proficient to nail a shot. But that pressure is no longer necessary with digital photography. The advances of post-processing rescue many failures in camera. Light and exposure are no longer a matter of life and death as this also can be corrected to a degree. Throwing away film negatives was painful at the time. Deleting a file is not. Digital files are disposable and no one worries when a shot doesn't happen.
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What challenges has this presented you with? The challenge it presents is that more and more people see themselves as a photographer. The technology does enable to people to take pretty good shots, the digital camera do most things well when on automatic mode. so this is where it helps to be proficient in post production too.
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How have you embraced (or rejected) changing technology? I embraced the technology because I didn't get serious with photography until after the digital revolution so I know no better. I have to say though that it is much nicer keep snapping without having to worry about being at the end of a film role, or paying to send them away to Trueprint to find out the whole film was damaged.
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How do you think the way cameras are marketed affects people’s perception of the value of professional photography? I do think the way that the phone companies focus on the camera part of the phones is leading people to think about how they can take images like a professional, even with depth of field and gorgeous filters. I do think that it is only a matter of time until people realise it still isn't as good as a professional. Many people don't backup phones and loose all images too, I've done it myself!
Week 3 Re Thinking Photographers
This week we looked at the changing roles of photographers, what people's perceptions of photographers might be, and how these can be formed.
We do not need to investigate far into the medium’s first fifty years before we find significant examples of photographers who challenged this blind faith in photography’s veracity, and pushed the practical and ideological limits, but also to see how people used it to influence. Hippolyte Bayard’s Self-Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man (1840) was arguably the first example of the photographic lie.
"Bayard was persuaded to postpone announcing his process to the French Academy of Sciences by François Arago, a friend of Louis Daguerre, who invented the rival daguerreotype process. Arago's conflict of interest cost Bayard the recognition as one of the principal inventors of photography. He eventually gave details of the process to the French Academy of Sciences on 24 February 1840 in return for money to buy better equipment.
As a reaction to the injustice he felt he had been subjected to, Bayard created the first staged photograph entitled, Self Portrait as a Drowned Man. In the image, he pretends to have committed suicide, sitting and leaning to the right. Bayard wrote on the back of his most notable photograph:
The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life....! ... He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay."
ref; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Bayard
Camille Silvy’s River Scene, France/La Vallée de l’Husine (1858) and Henry Peach Robinson’s When the Day’s Work is Done (1877) are both complicated compositions made from multiple negatives. Traditions such as ‘spirit’ photography, popular from the 1850s onwards, and the trend for ‘headless’ photography often found within photo collage albums of the Victorian era are further examples. In her essay on photography for the Quarterly Review in April 1857, Lady Eastlake wrote: “Photography has become a household word and a household want; is used alike by art and science, by love, business, and justice…”
I present these historical examples to argue the point that while the challenges brought by the digital age are expansive and complex, photography has always been a highly experimental medium, ambiguous and fluid in nature, often moving between classifications. Any artist-photographer working today either consciously or subconsciously is working within the historical context of such forebears discussed above. Once we have dismissed a singular view of photographic history, and accepted that a straightforward linear narrative from science to art with clear ideological beginnings and ends is not appropriate, we are free to explore the role of photography today.
Considering the traditions of the art museum, what conceptual challenges does the digital age bring to a museum’s practice in terms of its understanding and exhibition of photography? As photography moves further away from film and paper-based techniques, and a born digital image becomes increasingly screen-based, and adaptable in how it can be merged with other mediums, our past understanding of this term needs re-evaluating. The digital age can necessitate that the art museum reconsider its traditional object-based view. It must be adaptable in acknowledging that contemporary photography has further blurred distinctions between genres, the still and moving image especially. Many photographic artists working today are currently exploring the hybrid found when the mediums of photography, painting, computer technologies, and film meet. The work of Susan Sloan, whose motion capture portraits were exhibited at the Photographers Gallery in 2012, is an example of this development.
The Changing Face of Contemporary Photography Helen Trompeteler for the Aethetica Art Prize 2014
Ever changing and every moving, photography never stops evolving and changing. My own work has had huge changes, not only in the skills I am gaining along the way but the equipment I use, I change as and when I can fund it. One thing I am seeing more and more is how photography has gone from being an invention that is scientific to being journalistic, and because of that, what we actually see is based on the questions being asked of it. That being the case the old historical images we have are they a real representation of our history or just the questions being asked of it at that time?
Unruly Discipline
This week we looked at the idea of disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches in photography.
We also asked what other practices and media currently, or could, support or complement our own photography.
The question of how I relate to other disciplines or how they relate to me has had me pondering all week. First and foremost I am a portrait photographer. My style of work involves capturing a moment in time that a parent or family would want to keep. Other styles are my vintage or fine art collection whereby I create an image with subtleties that connect to the person. So for example in this image1 I have created an image based on the conversation I had with parents about the things that the child is interested in. She loved cats, astronomy and reading and I put together the following image. and looking at it from the viewpoint of what other disciplines are involved, there are many. Firstly historical. These are the types of images I always wanted to create when I was building my portfolio. It is a style of photography that isn't necessarily popular by public demand but it enables me to find and use my creativity. I used image 2 by Charles Bargue as inspiration.The styling behind the image looks to history for inspiration for costume and props.Without the ability to get hold of costumes and props, from collectors and suppliers then the authenticity of an image wouldn't work
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Week 2: Multiple Media and Interdisciplinary Practices.
© Gail Timms image 1
© Charles Bargue 1826–1883
I relate myself to historians as I feel passionate about preserving history and in the future our digitals will be the history. henry Peter Robinson said " Photography is a valid piece of art in its own right" Which I agree with, different to painting or moving images in so many ways but the same in others.And people usually think that their method is unique or different. I am the only artist of my sort in my local area so like to think of myself as unique.
'Other Than' Photography...
This task was about thinking away from photography for a moment.
I for a while have had a interest in The Dutch Masters, a selection of painters in the 16th and 17th centuries. I have been dipping my toe in for a while now but commercial photography keeps pushing it to the background. I have chosen Rembrandt for this task as I am drawn to the light he paints and I am setting up my project to work purely on his portrait paintings, with a touch of me thrown in. I am drawn to the life in the image, the colours and the story being told. The lighting is simple but natural with skilful shadow, something I hope to achieve by gaining more knowledge of light and shadow in my project..
http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rembrandt_painting_1626-35.htm
Rembrandt van Rijn
Selected Works: 1620-1635 shows the complete catalogue of work, plenty for me to get my teeth into.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r-LKEdR9zs a look at his life as a painter and etcher.
I also thought about communication, when digital first arrived it allowed people to show the world Instantly, like what you are eating in a restaurant, people often even go live which takes away and doubt that a tailored image has. Video can confirm attendance at a venue or even show things live for education purposes like student seminars.
Howard Pratt MA student Commented on a group of work by David Lean saying that he used his work as a gauge for his own and that "Strangely it is this scale that I now find a straight jacket on my photography and I have only just tried to pull away from it, leading me directly to undertake the MA in Photography."
I commented that "I feel that too. I came on this course very fixed in my plans but already am interested in so much more. I do feel that as we progress we develop our style and to a degree is always there and influences such as David Lean, will influence but not define as you move forward."
This week has left me feel very much in a straight jacket and while in the Webinar I expressed how my work felt empty now. Compared to the causes that other students felt they could achieve with their work. I then looked for women in the arts and for the first time saw there no real famous artists in the Rembrandt era.
"Now no serious contemporary art historian takes such obvious fairy tales at their face value. Yet it is this sort of mythology about artistic achievement and its concomitants which forms the unconscious or unquestioned assumptions of scholars, no matter how many crumbs are thrown to social influences, ideas of the times, economic crises, and so on. Behind the most sophisticated investigations of great artists-more specifically, the art-historical monograph, which accepts the notion of the great artist as primary, and the social and institutional structures within which he lived and worked as mere secondary "influences" or "background"-lurks the golden-nugget theory of genius and the free-enterprise conception of individual achievement. On this basis, women's lack of major achievement in art may be formulated as a syllogism: If women had the golden nugget of artistic genius then it would reveal itself. But it has never revealed itself. O.E.D. Women do not have the golden nugget theory of artistic genius. If Giotto, the obscure shepherd boy, and van Gogh with his fits could make it, why not women?"
Extract from Women, Art and Power and Other Essays, Westview Press, 1988 by Linda Nochlin, pp.147-
A topic I shall come back to later.
Photography. Time and Motion
"Photographs are history, a piece of time captured"
I had the same view but now with the advancement of movie, it is often doubtful as to whether the image is actually accurate or has been altered.
The video talked about the example of the style of freezeframe movies to hold tension as you have a moment to think on what will happen next.
Photography and the art of science
Some of the earliest applications of photography came in the fields of archaeology and botany. Pictured is a photograph from botanist Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843).
"Debate over photography’s status as art reached its apogee with the Pictorialist movement at the end of the 19th century. Pictorialist photographers manipulated the negative by hand; they used multiple negatives and masking to create a single print (much like compositing in Photoshop today); they applied soft focus and new forms of toning to create blurry and painterly effects; and they rejected the mechanical look of the standard photograph. Essentially, they sought to push the boundaries of the form to make photographs appear as “painting-like” as possible – perhaps as a way to have them taken seriously as art."
Associate Professor of Art History, http://theconversation.com/how-photography-evolved-from-science-to-art-37146
Thinking about this makes me think about how I do a painterly affect to my work, is it because I want to be like art in a different form, like a painter as I do love the textures of paint.
Week 2 Summary
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What has challenged you?
Understanding the reading. It is very deep and thoughtful stuff. I haven't really read as technical books prior to this course so I am rising to the challenge.
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What has surprised you?
I haven't really felt like I shouldn't be on the course. I did have concerns as i have not done anything as academic and listening to other people on the course and comparing I have felt very settled this week.
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What do you feel you have learned?
I have learned about the way that other disciplines work together with Photography. Infact there isn't much that doesn't use photography.
Week One. The Global Image a worldwide medium
Daguerre (1787–1851) Invention of Photography as i see if after seeing the video. I can see even back then the differing opinions, for example Daguerre wanting the mass production but Talbot being more interested in theArtistic side. Which reminded me of myself and some of my aquaintances. I do sometimes spend a long time on Photoshop to get the image I envisage.
The first studio by Beard in 1841 working at producing that single outstanding image. I see myself as just such an artist.
Do you see Parallels between historic spread of Photography and the Transmission of Digital images today?
Taken from Getty Institute. Little did we know that we were already in the midst of a decades-old development that would carry us into an age in which computers would become essential and omnipresent.
One goal from that era, a paperless society, has yet to be achieved, despite great advances in digital technologies and communication systems, such as the Internet. The opposite may even be true: dealing with digital files has created a number of unanticipated problems, such as the permanence of file formats and storage media and the obsolescence of software and hardware.
I feel that very often the digital image can give a false impression of the actual moment. And so when that image is spread across the digital media it could be seen as spreading an image that is false and leads people to make up their own minds on what is actually happening in the image, as very often no one knows the next step.
Little did we know that we were already in the midst of a decades-old development that would carry us into an age in which computers would become essential and omnipresent.
One goal from that era, a paperless society, has yet to be achieved, despite great advances in digital technologies and communication systems, such as the Internet. The opposite may even be true: dealing with digital files has created a number of unanticipated problems, such as the permanence of file formats and storage media and the obsolescence of software and hardware that can be trusted.
Can you think of any problems associated with the speed in which Photography moves.
Speed can over take the quality of images. for example "But now in the digital age there is almost no consequence or cost to taking pictures, beyond charging the phone or dedicated camera"
The impact on professional photographers has been dramatic. Once upon a time a photographer wouldn't dare waste a shot unless they were virtually certain it would work.
Margolis recalls the story of a photographer working in Berlin in 1939. The man had eight photographic plates - eight pictures - to use in six weeks of work. "He'd be covering Nazi rallies and would go the week before to plan it like a film shot, making sure he got the right angles. In the end, out of the eight plates he got four award-winning photos." Reminds me of 35mm whereby you sent your family shots to Truprint and hoped that some came out well. With the digital image there is no loss in taking ten of the same image to get what you want, enabling you as an artist to trash images easily and with no thought. The thing I like about about fine Art is the fact that so much more time is spent on creating the image with your own stamp on it.
Week One. The Global Image Windows on the world
Photography, being the windows offers the views out side of our own world. In the past by use of topographic view cards showing places in the world or even for titilation.
The video showing Plato's cave, explained about children kept in a cave and all they could see was the shadows and how this influenced their views of the outside world. I agree that photography does this, a snap in a moment of time doesn't give the who story, I think that is why photography is so fantastical as it leads the viewer to question what is happening, wether it is true or not leaves it open to doubt.
Photography: The Key Concepts. 2nd ed. David Bate, p. 207
The awareness of this increasing homogenisation of images certainly makes you question your own work and how people see it.
Like the Book Seeing things by Joel Meyerowitz page 63 states "It has to hold your attention, sometimes in the form of a question" Page 63 has a photograph of a man on the floor at the top of a sub-station with a person stepping over him because he is in the way. Lots of people looking but no one assisting. That happens so often, we tend to walk by, busy in our own worlds. Id hate to be that person who stepped over the man. Is he dead? The author explains how there are many sids to a story and the photograph shows you everything but the meaning.
This week also introduced me to the idea of photography as a window and mirror. it’s been interesting to consider whether my work is more mirror or window. I think it’s been more a reflection of ideas and fantasy, wanting to bring the past back to life and not to be such a digital disposable world
Week One. The Global Image- Unity and Change
The value and importance of photographs is so understated. The do bring around change, so many world changing everts happen because of photographs, like Yellowstone park. When enough people are sold on the idea or the beauty of something then it leads people to act to preserve or to change. For example images of child labour cause so much controversy that laws were passed to protect the working child. So I guess my answer to the question "Do you think the power and influence of the photograph is understated? My answer is no, if used in the right way can bring about many changes for the good. Today with social media and the digital era, I do believe there is no shelter from what people see, the good the bad and the ugly, causes far too many conversations with children that they are exposed to inappropriate images and there is no protection for them in todays digital world.
Do I think it devalues the true extent of the role the photograph can have to bring about change? No, But I do think people question what they see more and more.
Is the power of photography as a tool for advocacy understated? I think it can be used as a tool if there are enough and clear explanations and evidence of what is actually going on in the image.