Photographs are the result of the programming that is achieved by a camera. The creative process behind them however is much more complicated. The creativity behind a photograph is hidden beneath the ingredients that make up a photograph.According to The Photograph, images produced by a camera are a series of coding that is decoded by critics, which in turn interpret information. The information viewed by the viewer is intended to improve the advancements of photography. Photographs are composed of a series of black and white colors that are used to identify the features of an environment. the colors can also mix to form grey which is considered “theoretical” by Vilem, as it is neither black nor white which is said to not exist. Yet when considering whether black and white images are theoretical they are not seen as theoretical unless they mix together to form grey. Amy Tan theorizes that creativity is most commonly influenced through childhood trauma. Tan discusses her creative process through her personal experiences with her brother and father whom both suffered from brain tumors. Tan relates her trauma to a buddhist saying: “Saving a fish from drowning”, meaning that you can argue that you had good intentions for committing an action and not be held responsible for it.

I think that Amy Tan’s TED Talk relates to the advances of photography based on the struggle to find a better way to capture images along with a reasonable excuse to explain the meaning behind the images. Photographers can have a reason to take a photograph but the viewers of the photograph can see something entirely different based on their own creative process. Everyone’s creativity works in a different way so it is of no surprise that a single photograph can have multiple meanings.