“In Our Own Image” Reading Blog
1. What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
Fred Ritchin first mentioned the concept of “fluidity of the digital” in the foreword:
One could say that we were entering the “post-photographic age” in the sense that the fidelity of the mechanical age was being replaced by the fluidity of the digital.
Digital photography essentially differs from film photography in that the images are acquired and displayed through electronic sensors, digital signals, and sequential scanning results under computer technology processing. “Fluidity of the digital” makes image processing too easy and effortless. This is a phenomenon but also a fact. With enough patience to modify pixels, you can manipulate digital-based pictures like a painter and change everything you want to change.
Speaking of painter-like photographers, KangHee Kim comes to my mind (click on the link to see her artist page). In case you’re too lazy to click in to see her work, I’ll simply post a few of them here.
KangHee studied painting in college and never had a systematic study of photography. She uses her camera with the feeling of painting, so she assembles her captured images into a dreamy painting with Photoshop, creating a healing utopia. Blending familiar street scenes with surreal elements, KangHee Kim’s work is mesmerizing and reassuring, taking you away from reality for a moment and providing a bit of solace and comfort in this chaotic world.
But it also leads us to think about the definition of photography: to what extent can a change of pixel points be considered photography? It reminds me of this portrait photo taken in 1860.
In those days, there was neither Photoshop nor digital technology. But using traditional darkroom techniques, this portrait of Abraham Lincoln is actually a composite of Lincoln’s head, and the body of politician John Calhoun.
Therefore, I believe that “fluidity of the digital” has become the carrier of modern thoughts and ideas. In addition to photo recording, there is also photographers’ thinking. It is not simply a photograph, but a photographic art, a photographic creation.
2. Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g. text, video, virtual reality, books).
Nowadays, the purpose of photography is more to express the subjective feelings of the photographer about the objective things and to infect the audience with them. Because of this, the historical and commemorative value of photography is gradually taking a back seat to the artistic appreciation value. In capturing reality, the beauty of photography is that it turns a moment into an eternity. Jean-Luc Godard once said: “Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.” In contrast to video and virtual reality, photography captures the reality of a moment. This reminds me of Dorothea Lange’s saying, “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
Yet are such computer-rendered photographic images still true reality? Is it realism, or should it be called photorealism? What exactly is the difference between showing and recording an event with digital photography and recording it with traditional film photography? Can”t the event be documented orally in words? Can’t the event be recorded with sound? Then why mention digital photography in particular? These questions seem to get more and more complicated the more I think about them.
Photography and video certainly seem more objective than texts and books when we simply discuss the reality information presented by records. But we cannot deny that photographic images can shape individual identities and have different cultural influences. Like the subjective influence of books and texts, the content of images has a documentary and awakening effect on individual memory, as well as on collective memory. When the authenticity of the captured “reality” is questioned, is it necessary to compare the amount of information that can be recorded by these different media/technology?