What Ritchin means with the phrase “fluidity of the digital” is the versatility of digital media and its capability to change into a different medium. In the reading, In Our Own Image by Fred Ritchin, he states “changing the architecture of the image-moving from chemically processed grain to discrete electronic pixels-we are not creating another photographic genre, but another medium…its easy metamorphosis into other media such as video, virtual reality environments and the like, its ephemerality on the screen, are some of the profound differences from the paper-and-film based photograph” (xii). With the different form of digital media it is easily transformable into something which caters to the the term of fluidity. An example that exemplifies this is the photographs by Brandon Woelfel. In his photographs he always carries a unique cold blue theme throughout his works but it helps his works tell a story. While his focus is typically on a person he often brings in elements of a fairly lights, rainbows, and sometime flowers. With his artistry and the different objects together it works as a way in which the person is a fantasy world while everything he takes a picture of is in our modern world.
Photography is a medium in which its capability is beyond capturing just reality. In comparison to books, photos and photography is able to portray something words cannot express. While books can describe reality, photography is able to show what reality is visually. Based on these two comparison, this is where the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” stems from. Nevertheless, both mediums are a powerful mode of communication that can show their messages in different ways. While photography has the potential to capture something beyond reality, I think it is also capable of capturing the still moments of reality that we encounter today. Photography is an instant snapshot of the present which is why its means of communication can portray a variety of things.