1. What does Ritchie mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
The “fluidity of the digital” means a characteristic of photography when it entered the “post-photographic age” when the photos can be adjusted and manipulated. Before, photographs were known for their objectivity and historical reliability. Yet, as the computers develop into “discrete electronic pixels,” the photographs in digital form can be easily manipulated, which lost the original feature of photography of being objective. Digital photographs and images can be adjusted and even easily transformed to “other media such as videos, virtual reality environments, etc.” (Ritchin, xii)
Digital photography, Close, created by the artist Martin Stranka is an excellent example of the “fluidity of the digital.” Instead of “the fidelity of the mechanical age” (Ritchin, xi), Close shows a surreal image of a floating woman situating “between dreaming and awakening.” Through digitalizing the photos, each pixel can be altered: elements can be removed, distorted, adjusted, changing colors, etc. It leaves an ample space of “fluidity” for creativity, imagination, and scenes that seems fraudulent in reality and far from objectivity.
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).
Photography is only fully reliable before the computers and photographs are digitalized, transforming from “chemically processed grain to discrete electronic pixels” (Ritchin, xii). When photography obtains the character of “the fluidity of the digital,” the reality that the photos once presents can be easily manipulated and altered by power and privilege. We could trust photography before with simply a click on the shutter and objectively captures the distinct moment that can hardly be proven by the secondary recourses of the witnesses’ verbal interviews, which were considered “subjective.” We can only view photography with skepticism because even the ones we think are real might have already been edited. Therefore, we can say that photography can capture absolute reality only before going through the digital editing process.
Comparing it with texts, this is already a great extent of reliability. Humans produce text, but no human is one-hundred percent objective. While producing a text, there will unavoidably incorporate tone, mood, underlying voice, connotations, and personal opinions. This can only be considered the “subjective” secondary resource that has gone through the process of our minds. Despite the fluidity of digital photography, there remains a considerably large extent of capability of capturing reality when we are sure that it has not been “processed.” To this certain extent, photography is a reflection of the objective truth.
Citations
Florin, Bogdan. “Top Ten Surreal Photographers You Must Know.” Photography Office, Photography Office, 2 Oct. 2014, http://www.photographyoffice.com/blog/2014/9/top-ten-surreal-photographers-you-have-to-know.
stranka, Martin. “Close.” Martin Stranka – Fine Art Photographer, 2010, https://www.martinstranka.com/prints/close.