Digital Photography Reborn
In response to article Photography Reborn , by Jonathan Lipkin . . .
Who killed the Polaroid? Was a title I thought of for this assignment, but then I went off on a tangent. For me, I think this article screams the notion of being able to have complete freedom and complete control. Control over reality, control over what’s being conveyed, control over the content, which ultimately gives us complete freedom.
Lipkin brings up a great point that both the advancement in technology and the shift in people’s thoughts, feelings and attitudes propelled digital photography into the forefront as a new way of creating art. The reality of a print created today is only true if produced traditionally in a dark room. Even as we upload our images onto a computer it breaks our photos down into tiny bits of data, ironically beginning the whole process of manipulation. With the leap into a digital interface, the photograph is now an image seen on a screen. However, a photograph’s transformation into another image results from the assemblage of other photographs and images. The line is drawn between the two at this point, yet the image can still become a photograph if photographed once again. The photographs we turn into images, are by our choice. That’s the ultimate control which is afforded in virtual reality.
This article made a very intuitive prediction that I’d like to point out–our acceptance of the false reality in digital photography. It was inevitable. But then again, why would photographers be so un-nerved about creating a photograph out of other photographs? If photography is considered an art form then why try to protect it from change? It would be like saying “No, I forbid you to evolve!” This goes against everything that I’ve ever understood art to be. We should remember that after moving into the era of technology, nothing is sacred.
“What will happen as modeling software becomes increasingly capable of generating photo-realistic imagery that cannot be distinguished in any way from real life?” Architectural renderings done in any 3D software today are kind of the answer to the last open ended question in Lipkin’s article. Today, I think they are the truest of false realities. However, those images are made to represent what will be versus what is make believe. Product designers and anyone else that designs for real world applications utilizes these same methods and programs. The primary use of photo-realistic renderings is to show our clients what our designs will look like in reality.
Back to the idea of freedom, digital photography has sped up the process in which artists, photographers, and anyone with a digital camera could freely express themselves. There had to have been a desire to want more freedom, to stretch the boundaries a little more because obviously, we were never satisfied. Could it be argued that the by-product of our frustrations with wanting more control and change in our creative process was the digital photograph? In any case, digital photography is an accepted art form because it allows for creative freedom.
Posted by: Tiffany Nahinu