- What does Ritchin mean with the “Fluidity of the digital” Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
According to Fredd Rithcin’s article In Our Own Image, “Fluidity of the digital” means that digital photos are highly maneuverable and easily changed. With the progress of science and technology, mechanical photography is gradually being replaced by digital photography. In the old mechanical age, photographs were hard to change and often the most reliable historical evidence. But technology has evolved so far that photographs become sketches and are constantly being redrawn. The photos we post on WeChat, Facebook, and other social media are also often doctored. Photo editing is often related to people’s expectations. If people want to be taller, they will make their legs very long. However, this kind of digital photo editing is also gradually accepted by the audience. That’s what keeps the technology evolving.
- Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (eg. text, video, virtual reality, books).
The “inauthenticity” of the photo can lead to creativity and imagination. Although traditional photographs can well capture reality, the Angle and color of light are affected by the environment and equipment when capturing light. This is no longer the reality of that moment. So no matter what time, photographs can never completely restore the scene at that time. Digital technology, however, allows us to artificially change the color of light on the basis of the original. This can help maximize the human imagination and change the original photo for the human aesthetic. By this time, photography had changed from revealing the truth to art. So I think that whether it’s able or not to capture the truth doesn’t matter anymore.