What makes a good picture? "Something kicked my gut inside"

Reading responses to “one of the most important questions in the world of photography” reaffirms my conclusion that there is no one right answer. As my eyes moved from line to line, I found myself agreeing with a lot of the respondent’s replies and a common theme, for the most part, seemed to emerge with which I couldn’t agree more. Good pictures extend beyond the technical components of an image. As Arthur Rothstein notes, “technical process in photography has reached the point where the means for producing good photography is available to all” and thus, good, and especially great photography is something more than the photographer’s composition, use of light, focus choice and depth of field.

Rather, a good picture must have the capacity to provoke and communicate emotion; it must be effective. A picture that reveals something beyond what is immediately presented to the viewer, one that “bares the aspects of people and their environment with unequalled revelation”, and an image that impacts the viewer on some emotional level all exemplify what makes a great photograph. Images that are stimulating and generate a response- whether it be mentally or physically- constitute the “great” ones. One respondent said, “the first time I saw it […] I caught my breath and something kicked my gut inside”. When a two-dimensional picture has the ability to trigger a response like that, how can it not be considered great?! There is no equation for what makes a picture good, they just are.