1.) What does Ritchin mean by the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
“Fluidity of the digital” means the digital photos are easy to be manipulated, which decreases the authority of photography. As Ritchin says, “[i]ts ephemerality on the screen, are some of the profound differences from the paper-and-film-based photograph”, he emphasizes the rapid change of digital photos, and that’s why “the fidelity of mechanical age” is replaced by the “fluidity of the digital.”
For example, it reminds me of a piece of recent news: young actor Hongsheng Huang accidentally died at home and his lifetime friends attended his funeral, however, famous singer Weiqi Fan was reported smiling at the funeral. There were photos proving that and they look authentic. In a while, Weiqi Fan was crazily attacked on the internet, until days later, some people found the wrong details of the fake news, finally proved Fan’s innocence. Photos can be manipulated and used as a tool for some publishers’ certain interpretations and mislead the public. Weiqi Fan was not the first victim, and would not be the last one, either. If the public cannot raise the awareness of the”fluidity of the digital” and learn to investigate reality by themselves, such things will never end, and someday, it might cause more serious losses.
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).
I think documentary photography is more capable of capturing reality, but the publisher’s honesty is always the most significant factor.
I read Walter Benjamin’s A Little History of Photography, in this article, Benjamin states that “the lessons inherent in the authenticity of the photograph” cannot be circumvented only by an unsuccessful commentary. So he suggests combining the inscription and the photograph to make the photographic construction more clear. I think Benjamin’s theories make sense, but I noticed nowadays there are often inscriptions becoming a central visual focus, and I have seen excellent photography reviews more than once, however, the photographs beside them are unremarkable. So it worths thinking of how to make the text and the photograph best coordinated as for every photographer.