on the elephant outside the frame and cropping

Just before Christmas, I had the privilege of judging a local camera club's end of year photo competition.  As always, it was extremely enjoyable. As always, I did it 'fresh' (without seeing any of the images beforehand).


I was impressed by the high standard but found myself repeating the same advice:"this could be cropped"  and "I think this is a monochrome image". 


Then on watching this video interview of Errol Morris, I was reminded again that no image should be taken at face value. Not everything needs to be explained but most needs to be understood. 


Recommended. 


Thanks to Open Culture for uncovering this video.