Seeing Isn’t Believing

Whose eye provides the image that you see?
The professional or the amateur photographer is already motivated to share the personal vision of the world that draws him or her. Photographers show others how something appears through their eyes. The choices of subjects depend on their unique point of view.
How their images get to us depends on who sees value in the image and transmits it to some defined segment of the public.
Example:
This photographer has an interest in public art, and determined to spend part of a day taking images at Salem Oregon's Capitol grounds. There is a historical connection and a nexus with the current environment or context of specific pieces of public art that have been sited on the communal ground. There is a symbolism.
I looked for good light conditions, I sought a natural frame for my subject that focused on what feeling and structure could be revealed.
I chose a statue in a quiet nook of the park of the Circuit Rider. It was an homage to pioneer missionaries and their role in the establishment of American culture and political control in Oregon country.
I framed the rider looking up, for a feeling of respect. He rides between twin lightposts--reader can infer symbolic value and attribute or project personal meaning on the image. Behind him are Commerce Building, to the left is Supreme Court of Oregon building. Oregonian viewers would recognize them and react to their social significance in relation to the central figure of the Rider.There is room for the viewer to construct a meaningful story by the juxtaposition of these elements.

There are compositional devices, considerations of image quality, lens used, etc. All these are means to an end. Strong sunlight lends drama; green trees and grass soften the scene in a nostalgic way.
Still, the original image had some elements that, in the photographer's opinion, distracted from the central message. That's why a photo-editing software exists.
I used Photoshop(TM) to manipulate the raw picture into a finished(*maybe tweak it some more) image.
So I created a cameo effect, tightening up on the salient features and also adding a nostalgic frame.

I also added my copyright notice--though this is covered by copyright laws, some people forget to honor those protections, and I have a product to protect. And this is a big problem for professionals posting to the internet.
The motive of potential customers and salable applications colors the choices made at every point.
But what else did I change from the original image?
What didn't show in the final product?
Depending on your value system, the image of a trash can either is a distraction from the noble tone of the Circuit Rider, or it is an elegy to the positive social value of Recycling as a contrast to the old social structures of the Pioneer, Commerce, and the American System.
This photographer has made an editorial choice of what to show--and what not to show.