Fred Ritchin: In our own image
According to Ritchin, what he meant by the “fluidity of the digital” was how the field of digital media in photography is flexible and is always in the process of changing and being presented with a new challenge. Indeed, it is stated on pages 18 and 19 that “…new kinds of photography are slowly emerging including strategies for documenting realities heretofore inaccessible.” An example could be an AI image generator which creates realistic images based on any input that you provide. Moreover, Ritch also mentions that photography should not only use to capture memory, but also offer flexibility in both analogue and digital environments. (20)
Photography is often perceived as pictorial evident of a certain event and as a medium that portrays reality. However, though a photograph can capture the moment, it only shows one dimension of real life, therefore you can say that it cannot fully portray reality. Other media, such as films or videos, on the other hand, have a multidimensional spectrum and are capable of representing reality in a slightly more vivid and detailed way compared to just displaying a single image because they can include sound as well. In fact, “They also overestimate the power of the technology saying that ‘the camera never lies is as foolish as asserting that the computer always does.” (126)