musings from the photographic memepool [the shallow end]

So a while back on my old blog, I asked a question. I received several reponses, and thank you.

The question itself was actually taken from an essay by Henry Holmes Smith, who was an advocate of photographic education, with an emphasis on teaching people to read photographs.

Anyway, I think in all fairness I will expand on the question, and also ask another.

First the new question.

If there are two types of photographers in the world, one whose work could be described as a mirror, the other a window, which are you?

Secondly the original question was taken from an idea in the original essay, titled "The photograph and it's readers, 1953." In it He lists 4 constants that could be used as guides for reading a photograph. Number 3 of these constants reads and I quote,

"The immense respect with which the great photographers regard the natural, the real, and the exact."^†

So has your answer changed?

And if so why?

^†Henry Holmes Smith Collected Writings 1935 - 1985. Pub Center for Creative Photography University of Arizona 1986 ISBN 0938262084