Finding your voice in the midst of a revolution

[sanking]

Some may find this article interesting.


http://time.com/4003527/future-of-photography/

I found this observation from the article illuminating.

"Digital capture quietly but definitively severed the optical connection with reality, that physical relationship between the object photographed and the image that differentiated lens-made imagery and defined our understanding of photography for 160 years. The digital sensor replaced to optical record of light with a computational process that substitutes a calculated reconstruction using only one third of the available photons. That’s right, two thirds of the digital image is interpolated by the processor in the conversion from RAW to JPG or TIF. It’s reality but not as we know it."

Some of the implications apply, it seems to me, not only with digital capture, but anytime analog capture is digitized.


Sandy

[Dan Fromm]

Sandy, do you really take that nonsense seriously?

[Kevin Crisp]

This sounds a little like Neil Young's rant against MP3's.

[Sal Santamaura]

Two things about the article jump out.

First, the main problem revealed by its thrust is that we're still using the term "photography." If (and I didn't research all the detailed technical points) there's so much different about modern imaging methods, it seems a new descriptor for them would be appropriate. "Computography" or something like that.

Second, I found this quote to be key:

"...isolating ourselves in an historical backwater of communication, using an interesting but quaint visual language removed from the cultural mainstream..."

Since childhood, I've been removed from the cultural mainstream. It's a very comfortable place for me, one that feels quite natural.

Carry on.

[Bruce Barlow]

Since childhood, I've been removed from the cultural mainstream. It's a very comfortable place for me, one that feels quite natural.

Carry on.

+1

[mdm]

I think young people now are all doing exactly what Edward Weston was doing with his peppers, Caponigro with his apple, Adams with moonrise, Atget with old Paris, Sudek with a vase and window, Gursky with his 50 cent, the lady whose name escapes me with her film stills, the beautiful young thing with her selfies. Defining their reality. Reality has always been subjective, we were only pretending. Sometimes I am blown away by the visual discernment I see in the Instagram feeds of twenty something's. And by the crap that people calling themselves photographers regurgitate. I have no idea what I am trying to say with my photography, I am not trying to say something, but I have no doubt they say something, and it's their voice not mine. My photography is about loosing my voice and finding it at the same time. And painting with the palette of your choice, lf or iPhone, analog or hybrid or digital, paintbrush or tattoo gun. Is the medium still the message?

[Sal Santamaura]

...Reality has always been subjective...

This is one example of something that's generally accepted by the cultural mainstream with which I strongly disagree and am far removed from.

Reality is completely objective. It's commonly denied and frequently not perceived, but it's nonetheless real. Perception, on the other hand, is subjective.

[Michael R]

It is not entirely nonsense. I've had several discussions about this with someone on another forum. My initial position was that any differences in the way film and digital sensors record are irrelevant because in the end ALL photographs are illusions/abstractions anyway. However I have since come to acknowledge the nature of digital "capture" does involve an additional layer of abstraction at the taking/recording stage vs film. It then becomes a philosophical discussion.

[mdm]

This is one example of something that's generally accepted by the cultural mainstream with which I strongly disagree and am far removed from.

Reality is completely objective. It's commonly denied and frequently not perceived, but it's nonetheless real. Perception, on the other hand, is subjective.

Religion, that's where you are heading, stay away. I will say though, take a look at the imagery in any church.

[Sal Santamaura]

Religion, that's where you are heading, stay away...

I neither intended nor wrote anything about religion. The rest of your post #9, however, introduced that prohibited subject. It seems the reality is that you ought stay away from it here.