Uncertainty

The uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics states “the more precisely the position of some moving particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” The original argument for this was made by Werner Heisenberg, whose uncertainty principle is often confused with another effect he proposed in physics known as the observer effect, which offers that measurements of certain systems cannot be made without affecting the systems observed. What both of these concepts share is the idea that our observation is unreliable. This is because when we measure something, we do it in the present: we try to stop time. We do the same with photography. We try at once to stop time and capture more than the moment. Herein lies the essential failure of photography. This essential failure in our attempt at understanding what it means to capture “accurately” is also what drives the very endeavor.