Is it real?

While discussing the issue of processing or not a photo on an earlier blog post, I touched upon the issue of how "faithful" (or not) a photo is to "the real thing". This has been an ongoing debate for some time already, pre-dating the era of digital photography, which only which only made the issues more evident.

As a photographer, I constantly interpret the world around me, and produce images that convey some perception to those who see them. They, in turn, re-interpret my image according to their own perceptions, biases and experiences. Sometimes I get the feeling that what I "saw" is what they "see", and somehow we seem to be communicating.

Occasionally, however, "reality" plays some tricks on us. Consider the picture below:

It is a beautiful building in Madrid, near Plaza de la Cebada. Is there anything unusual? you ask... This is the image page where you can see a larger version (I could not figure how to insert a direct link to the large size, sorry). Can you see it?

The entire left side is painted on!!! When I first looked at it (the building), I didn't notice anything. Then I saw the painted man on the balcony, which made me look again. And then I saw it, incredible!

So here we have an example of "reality manipulation", but NOT by the photographer ;-)!

Tell me what you think!