Rexer: Everybody's Photographs

The question of have all photographs been taken has plagued me before, as well as a multitude of others. While seeing similar images, similar styles, similar subjects, and intersections in between, it can sure feel like every idea has been explored, every creation made, and like there is no room left for original thought. However, I ultimately have decided that no, all images have not been taken. Of course, a lot of this is true; so many ideas have been explored and claimed by famous artists, but they have captured one way of looking at things: their own. And that is completely individual. Even if one were to take the same exact image someone else did, it will never truly be the same. Instead, it reveals photography's amazing ability to stop time. Perhaps people’s footsteps have eroded the ground, or nature has changed its landscape. A single light bulb has gone out, the sunlight brings out different colors, or the camera captures pixels differently. Any change, no matter how minute, separates each photo from the next. No one will ever truly be able to copy anything exactly in that way. Therefore, the number of photos to be taken in this world has no cap, and somehow, everything is new. This speaks to the beauty and horror of the persistence of time, and photography's ability to play with it, making it an ever-evolving medium. 

“...just because all the photographs have already been taken doesn’t mean they can’t be taken again. The point is to take them again, but differently, so that they become yours…” (Rexer, 144).