Photographs can be divided into two main types: those that are the result of selection and those that are the result of construction.
Documentary photographs, and photographs in the documentary style, are an example of the selective type: the photographer imposes an order on a found scene by choosing a vantage point, a frame, a moment of exposure and a plane of focus. In photographs like this a photographer, as Stephen Shore puts it,” solves a picture, more than composes one.” Walker Evan’s, Gas Station, Reedsville, West Virginia, 1936 is a good example.
Although studio photographs also involve selection, the emphasis is more on staging or creating a subject prior to shooting and then manipulating the image extensively post shooting.
A hybrid would be post shot construction – the initial photograph being initially “solved” at time of shooting, then manually or digitally manipulated on the computer or in the darkroom, typically for stronger aesthetic effect.
Edward Lewis 