The only reason this photo works is because of Photoshop. The original was almost composed well but it had a lot of problems with lighting faded colors and whatnot. Taking it to B&W helped. Then fiddling with the levels helped more. Then I put a bit of a mimicked film grain on it. And then cropped it a bit and then sharpened it too.

The important point is that there is no reality in the electronic world. Everything is manipulatable and, thus, nothing can really be trusted in an “accurate representation of reality” kind of way.

Perhaps nothing ever could be. Photo journalists manipulate the image all the time simply through framing and composition. Film makers craft images all the time that have nothing to do with “real”. People don’t look like that in the real world. Rarely, for instance, is the 50 year old woman you’re talking to at the bank bathed in soft light coming from just over your head to evaporate the wrinkles and lines or is viewed through soft filter to blur the scene just a bit more and fade all the detritus of life and age from view.

I think I got the “essence of Salvador in that moment” right in that processed photo. But if I did, it surely wasn’t through my skill as a photographer.