1. What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital
imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
The “fluidity of digital” means that when people entered the post-photographic age, the photos may no longer be a reliable “trace” from appearances but an initial sketch which could be and often was redrawn (Ritchin 1). Photographs are no longer entirely real but may be edited to become a means for people to achieve a specific purpose.
Nowadays, many people are bald at a young age due to the stress of life. After taking a photo, people go to apps like Photoshop to edit their photos to make their hair look more and their overall image look better.
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).
First, photos are taken by people with subjective ideas. The photographer has the power to choose what goes into his photos and what to ignore. Therefore, even for unprocessed photos, we cannot claim that they can fully capture reality.
Secondly, we have to divide the photos into two categories: documentary and post-editing.
Documentary photos are used to reflect reality and provoke people to think about real-life phenomena. So they mostly won’t be overly edited. These photos remind me of a Weibo blogger, who often reproduces photos reflecting social reality from all over the world. They bring a strong sense of documentary and an impact created by the power of the real.
Post-editing photos are no longer a reflection of reality, but what people want to present to their audience. As mentioned in the article, sometimes when photos serve political purposes, they are specially processed to better guide people’s thoughts.
Overall, the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality depends on what kind of uses they are applied to. They can be very close to reality, or completely detached from it.
Compared with other media, the degree of reality photographs can reflect should be ranked in the middle, despite the fact that the degree of reality they can reflect all depend on how they are used. The reality that books can reflect should be the weakest. Next is the text. Because of the lack of images, they have to consist largely of subjective descriptions. Videos are generally more realistic than pictures because they reflect a dynamic process and give a more complete picture of the event. It is difficult to determine how realistic virtual reality is, as it depends on whether the scenes are set in real life or animated.
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