About this website
“Photography is an incredible gift to the world”
This one-page website went online at the end of March, 2021 to provide background on the development of TCQ.
Thus while I have spent years as a professional photographer, this website is about “photography” and not about “my photography.”
For the past quarter century my larger mission has been to celebrate photography’s unique role in society, in culture, in history, and in individual lives — a role that no other medium can match.
The now-universal ability to visually record — in a fraction of a second, with absolute precision — what one person saw, in one small corner of the world, at one unrepeatable moment in time, is an incredible gift to the modern world.
Understanding how photographs can serve as trustworthy “records” is more important than ever now that photographs can be radically manipulated without looking any less convincing.
It is clear that photography isn’t just about “how the photo looks” anymore. My project is to explore what that means for the future.
Thus while I have spent years as a professional photographer, this website is about “photography” and not about “my photography.”
For the past quarter century my larger mission has been to celebrate photography’s unique role in society, in culture, in history, and in individual lives — a role that no other medium can match.
The now-universal ability to visually record — in a fraction of a second, with absolute precision — what one person saw, in one small corner of the world, at one unrepeatable moment in time, is an incredible gift to the modern world.
Understanding how photographs can serve as trustworthy “records” is more important than ever now that photographs can be radically manipulated without looking any less convincing.
It is clear that photography isn’t just about “how the photo looks” anymore. My project is to explore what that means for the future.
About TCQ
“A wonderful problem to have”
In late 1996 I gingerly set out to tackle the biggest problem in the history of photography:
“It will always be true that some photographs are more trustworthy than others. But how can people decide which photos to trust now that they can no longer judge just by looking?”
The problem was hugely daunting but also hugely appealing.
“Daunting” because a solution to “photography’s biggest problem” would be of worldwide relevance (photography is now the world’s most universal language).
“Appealing” because it appeared that the solution might be attainable by one person, drawing entirely on information that was available to everyone.
That combination of factors made it a problem of a kind so rare that it might come along only once in a lifetime — a wonderful problem to have.
Quite helpfully, I learned of a “globally-relevant-but-solvable-by-one-person” problem that had been worked out not long before. In 1994 an Oxford mathematician named Andrew Wiles had, after 8 years of solitary toil, finally solved a world-famous 300-year-old math problem that he had first heard about three decades earlier, when he was only 10 years old.
Wiles’ experience provided crucial inspiration and guidance for privately tackling a public problem of this magnitude. I was on my way, although I had no idea that it would take 25 years to finish.
The TCQ website picks up the story there | PBS interview with Andrew Wiles
“It will always be true that some photographs are more trustworthy than others. But how can people decide which photos to trust now that they can no longer judge just by looking?”
The problem was hugely daunting but also hugely appealing.
“Daunting” because a solution to “photography’s biggest problem” would be of worldwide relevance (photography is now the world’s most universal language).
“Appealing” because it appeared that the solution might be attainable by one person, drawing entirely on information that was available to everyone.
That combination of factors made it a problem of a kind so rare that it might come along only once in a lifetime — a wonderful problem to have.
Quite helpfully, I learned of a “globally-relevant-but-solvable-by-one-person” problem that had been worked out not long before. In 1994 an Oxford mathematician named Andrew Wiles had, after 8 years of solitary toil, finally solved a world-famous 300-year-old math problem that he had first heard about three decades earlier, when he was only 10 years old.
Wiles’ experience provided crucial inspiration and guidance for privately tackling a public problem of this magnitude. I was on my way, although I had no idea that it would take 25 years to finish.
The TCQ website picks up the story there | PBS interview with Andrew Wiles
What’s next for TCQ?
Because it is designed for photography’s future — not for its past or present — TCQ is hardly known at all yet. It was rolled out with a simple 20-word announcement at the beginning of April 2021, since which time I have publicly said no more about it.
For now, TCQ is just quietly waiting for someone to discover it.
But after living with the subject for 25 years, I see no hurry. Every year more photographs are taken than in the year before, and every year it becomes easier even for smartphone photographers to instantly manipulate photographs without detection by the viewer.
As we plunge ever deeper into an age of skepticism about the media, the need will only grow for a way to identify which photographs can be trusted.
Eventually, augmented-reality technology will be commonplace in smartphone cameras (“Tap to replace the sky with a more dramatic one”; “Tap to replace the buildings with a grove of trees”). At that point the last few holdouts will acknowledge that photography has changed forever: it will never again be only about “How the photo looks.”
TCQ’s “Nonfiction label for photographs” will always be there, free for anyone to use.
For now, TCQ is just quietly waiting for someone to discover it.
But after living with the subject for 25 years, I see no hurry. Every year more photographs are taken than in the year before, and every year it becomes easier even for smartphone photographers to instantly manipulate photographs without detection by the viewer.
As we plunge ever deeper into an age of skepticism about the media, the need will only grow for a way to identify which photographs can be trusted.
Eventually, augmented-reality technology will be commonplace in smartphone cameras (“Tap to replace the sky with a more dramatic one”; “Tap to replace the buildings with a grove of trees”). At that point the last few holdouts will acknowledge that photography has changed forever: it will never again be only about “How the photo looks.”
TCQ’s “Nonfiction label for photographs” will always be there, free for anyone to use.
About contacting me
I’ve tried over the Internet era to keep a low profile online (e.g., no social media), and I am grateful to those who have helped me maintain that. I don’t do audio or video interviews, but I’m willing to have exchanges via email as time permits.
(If you have a question specifically about TCQ, please first use the search box on the tcq.photos website; that could save both of us time.)
(If you have a question specifically about TCQ, please first use the search box on the tcq.photos website; that could save both of us time.)
“Do as MUCH as you can to make others’ lives better
while drawing as LITTLE attention to yourself as possible.”
— What my mom taught me about goals
while drawing as LITTLE attention to yourself as possible.”
— What my mom taught me about goals