Tom Gunning
“What’s the Point of an Index? Or Faking Photographs” Still/Moving: between Cinema and Photography ed. Karen Beckman and Jean Ma (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) pp. 23- 40.
The Man.
- Looks a bit like WeiWei
- Professor of Art History, Committee on Cinema and Media Studies, and the College
- Current research on the relation between early cinema and the experience of modernity.
-
Essay Summary + points
It is a criticism of the indexical... he will go on to argue that it is a semiotic term that doesn't quite explain account fascination of a photograph... or give an accurate account for our experience of them interpretation
Charles Peirce's indexicality - the physical relationship between the object photographed and the resulting image. (knowledge of HOW it was made? can't explain the fascination)
Rhetoric - the art of discourse
Iconicity -
The Truth Claim - derived from indexicality, to describe the prevalent belief that traditional photographs accurately
depict reality. He states that the truth claim relies upon both the
indexicality and visual accuracy of photographs
- Excited and concerned about emerging new media...
- Particular worry is that older media is looked upon as flawed that new media will suceed
- 1 of Largest problems first... the truth claim of traditional photography. (identified with charles Peirce's indexicality) He will investigate both.
- First he will look at the issue that The digital and indexical are opposed terms.
So, there is a difference in how an image is made, light sensitive emulsion VS. data encoded in a matrix on numbers.
- How does this challenge indexicality?
- They both capture information but the difference is in how it is captured.
- This has implications for -stored -transferred -manipulated.
- Storage seems fine, (numerical data) digital images can be kept as passport photo's.
- "foolish to identify the indexical with the photographic; most indexical infomation is not recorded by photography" signs are not recorded by photography? They are culturally given like in the next reading?
Pierce Trichotomy of signs
icon - likeness, doesn't have to be connected
index - a sign that is linked by an actual connection... such as an action
symbol - like most language, no relation... horse has no relation to the actual horse itself, just words, sound (unlike onomatopoeia)
- iconicity doesn't undermine its indexical properties
- An index need not resemble the thing is represents
So, both digital + analogue have indexical properties determined by objects outside of the camera... so no difference!
If one considers a photograph a direct imprint of reality, cutting out the intermediary states...
which brings forth that digital images can be manipulated in ways photographs cannot.
- He suggests that both CAN still be manipulated in many ways and so the indexical can be ignored or undone.
- returns to digital and points out 'visual accuracy + reconisability' of the edited image... (is this not the same as an icon?
- evaluating a photo as accurate, depends on indexicality + recognition of it + its subject
- painting freedom
-power in recognising them as manipulated photogaphs
p27 which tackles truth claim (indexicality + visual accuacy)
truth claim knocked by paranoid position (photos as evidence for non existence( or schizo position) release from truth
- immediately adds it is a lot about interpretion
- the photograph is used as evidence
- photo can only tell the truth if it can tell a lie (simple logic which i like) truth claim lurks behind a lie claim
- the truth implies the possibility of lying and vice versa
Introduction of FAKING PHOTOGRAPHY
- kind of proves his own point, if a photograph can be faked, lied. then it is fair to say that the photograph has a truth claim to it, doesn't deny it, it demonstrates it (top p29)
- going back to using it as evidence, strict codes and law are put into place to determine the accuracy of a photograph
- photographs used as science evidence, too much data, intertwined indexical + iconic aspects
- eg Marey, element of time, more abstract... digital manipulator?... couldnt remove the indexical relation to the subject however...
NOW, seems to talk of some of the benefits of manipulation
- not faking photographs but more creative, play and imagination... Art photography.
Finally, IF the truth claim was over completely overthrown, images couldn't be trusted... don't worry. The possibility of deception would also be abolished + counterfeiting would cease. They would lose their power.
p32 We come to a doubt in photography. approach it phenomenologically, not semiotically
phenomologically - of conscious experience
semiotically - (relating to signs, symbols)
Reason: believes best to grasp our drive behind digitalisation (he's concerned then) why its unlikely to disappear... and what it offers us, other visual representation can't
- we delight in digital manipulation... it is 'clever' but it is not a case of being fooled... mostly never, we are aware what a real image is, but we delight in the familiarity with accuracy and also the obvious distortion of the image.
'potentially an accurate representation' =fun
'Thus a sense of the photograph as reference remains inherent even while contadicted (or played with) in a manipulated image.
bottom p33 'a phenomonological FASCINATION with photography' the relation between image + pre existing reality
- indexicality is a semiotic term (from the trichotomy) less sure it provides proper (or sufficient) term for the experience....
Cultural knowledge shapes our perception of things! INTERPRETATION... things that shape how we interpret
Mentions Andre Bazin + Roland Barthes (complex way) (realist positions)
Phenomenological framework has been laid by these two
So, in the remainder of the essay, WHY he thinks this tradition of interpretation us valuable, why it outruns an indexical account.
-pause, stop explaining the photograph + DESCRIBE it.
- it's features, never mistake for the real world!
- we don't approach it semiotically, but it is still clearly a sign for something
- They are more than signs.
- signs seem to reduce (their reference to a signification) somethig, photographs open up this complex world
"The photograph does make us imagine something else, something behind it, before it, somewhere in relation to it"
Barthes 'photograph + referent adhere'
Barthes shares Bazin beleif, the photograph puts us in the presence of something, it possesses an ontology rather than a semiotics
"a magic not an art"
BOTH: photography contributes neither a copy, or substitute "it contributes something to the natural order of creation"
fascination due to uniquness + contingency as well (ptaining to future events)
FULL CIRCLE DISCUSSION
other media, relate strngly to artificial realitites
to touch on:
= richness of the detailed visual array of a photograph
= temporality, to refer to a point in time
TO END:
-this is only the beginings to describe fascination with photography
-index is not adequate or accurate enough a term
-barthes + bazin, a photograph exceeeeeeds the functions of a sign
Thoughts + problems + discussion
they are opposed terms in what sense? physical, corporeal?
why is truth claim a problem?
1 digital vs indexical are separate, doesnt like that... difference between them
2 returns to truth claim
3 truth, is interpreted, photo can be used as evidence (truth) .... subvert that, people will inevitably fake photos
Monday 30 September 2013
Sunday 22 September 2013
PH4023 - wk1 John A. Walker - Context as a determinant of photographic meaning
Structure
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- second reading + thoughts
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
John A. Walker
context as a determinant of photographic meaning (1980)
from: the camerawork essays (context + meaning in photography, 1997)
introduction
- prompted by a desire to clarify the role that context plays in changing the meaning of photographs
- 2 prior essays, structural analysis + iconographic analysis :s
- marked change from internal to external
- individuals, unique...... many meanings of an image. Seems to imply an image can have billions of meanings. Did this not render it meaningless?
- ignored that a concensus may be reached
I found myself, the wisdom of crowds owed itself very well to this notion
- clear some images are ambiguous, pschology duck/rabbit picture.
[ the same signifier has two signified ]
- the number of meanings derived will not be enormous.
- reasons: ambiguity + complexity
the variety of contexts
- reception theory deals with this death of the author + birth of the implied reader
- reception history, over time.
- through discussion we can learn about others thoughts and feelings regarding pictures
- remember famous example: Barthes, emotional impact of a family photograph
- this is a contribution to ' reception studies'
beginning of essay
- wedding photograph, can lend itself to be recontextualised in many contexts
- third effect. when (1) photograph is placed next to (2) photograph we link them together and make connections between them
- paintings used to denote specific geographical locations, moved and lost all spatial awareness
- media has influence over the way an image is read, eg surrounded by text (factual, supportive) or in a high art magazine, white border, it becomes a precious object.
circulation/currency.
- meaning determined by spatio-temporal point of origin... a photograph has moved away in space and time...
idea, a graph exploring the dispersal of an image, an encoding which is evermore possible now with location at the touch of a button... to show the origins of an image, encoded, or something similar.
- photographs meaning seems to be viewed as eternally fixed...
- it is also subject to change however, because of this context
- NEED to examine the life of an image, as well as its birth (creation)
is it then possible to examine the death of an image? one which no longer exists and never will again? All that remains of this image then, is the writings that are left of it and the memorys we have. How like a book, an entire book to describe an image, a scene... but its death.
-photographs are like a currency, used to fulfill a purpose.
jo spence
- taken by Terry Demnett, displayed recently in feminist section
- transposes album photographs into the public realm.
- included unflattering photographs of herself
shares same topics as my own self portrait project, or perhaps as the project evolves and expands it is hard to not acquire new themes to attribute to the mass of imagery.
- forces people to see her in a new way
- the gallery has deradicallised radical photography...
Mental context or set
- the beholder's share, a viewer approaches an image not a tabula rasa, but with rich and full experiences and memory's
- social factor's change perception. gender, class, age...
- analysis of people's experience of a photograph is much more difficult than analysing pictures... what does go on in other peoples heads?
- danger.... ideological individualism
- media depends upon commonalities between people for communication.
-problematic to judge single image (we;re inundated with visual imagery daily)
- context of contemporary things... statue, different meanings. intended meaning vs established meanings (how like words)
context so troublesome, it lies outside the artists control
- film + audience, more advanced
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- second reading + thoughts
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
John A. Walker
context as a determinant of photographic meaning (1980)
from: the camerawork essays (context + meaning in photography, 1997)
introduction
- prompted by a desire to clarify the role that context plays in changing the meaning of photographs
- 2 prior essays, structural analysis + iconographic analysis :s
- marked change from internal to external
- individuals, unique...... many meanings of an image. Seems to imply an image can have billions of meanings. Did this not render it meaningless?
- ignored that a concensus may be reached
I found myself, the wisdom of crowds owed itself very well to this notion
- clear some images are ambiguous, pschology duck/rabbit picture.
[ the same signifier has two signified ]
- the number of meanings derived will not be enormous.
- reasons: ambiguity + complexity
the variety of contexts
- reception theory deals with this death of the author + birth of the implied reader
- reception history, over time.
- through discussion we can learn about others thoughts and feelings regarding pictures
- remember famous example: Barthes, emotional impact of a family photograph
- this is a contribution to ' reception studies'
beginning of essay
- wedding photograph, can lend itself to be recontextualised in many contexts
- third effect. when (1) photograph is placed next to (2) photograph we link them together and make connections between them
- paintings used to denote specific geographical locations, moved and lost all spatial awareness
- media has influence over the way an image is read, eg surrounded by text (factual, supportive) or in a high art magazine, white border, it becomes a precious object.
circulation/currency.
- meaning determined by spatio-temporal point of origin... a photograph has moved away in space and time...
idea, a graph exploring the dispersal of an image, an encoding which is evermore possible now with location at the touch of a button... to show the origins of an image, encoded, or something similar.
- photographs meaning seems to be viewed as eternally fixed...
- it is also subject to change however, because of this context
- NEED to examine the life of an image, as well as its birth (creation)
is it then possible to examine the death of an image? one which no longer exists and never will again? All that remains of this image then, is the writings that are left of it and the memorys we have. How like a book, an entire book to describe an image, a scene... but its death.
-photographs are like a currency, used to fulfill a purpose.
jo spence
- taken by Terry Demnett, displayed recently in feminist section
- transposes album photographs into the public realm.
- included unflattering photographs of herself
shares same topics as my own self portrait project, or perhaps as the project evolves and expands it is hard to not acquire new themes to attribute to the mass of imagery.
- forces people to see her in a new way
- the gallery has deradicallised radical photography...
Mental context or set
- the beholder's share, a viewer approaches an image not a tabula rasa, but with rich and full experiences and memory's
- social factor's change perception. gender, class, age...
- analysis of people's experience of a photograph is much more difficult than analysing pictures... what does go on in other peoples heads?
- danger.... ideological individualism
- media depends upon commonalities between people for communication.
-problematic to judge single image (we;re inundated with visual imagery daily)
- context of contemporary things... statue, different meanings. intended meaning vs established meanings (how like words)
context so troublesome, it lies outside the artists control
- film + audience, more advanced
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PH4023 - wk1 Roland Barthes - the death of the author
Structure
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- second reading + thoughts
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
Roland Barthes [trans by Richard Howard]
The death of the author (1968)
- castrato disguised as a woman
- writer's pov, who is speaking this way?
- will always be impossible to know, all writing is itself in a special voice
- literature - "that trap where all identity is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes"
- voice loses its origin, the author enters his own death, writing begins
- mediator X person
- the author is a modern figure prouduced by society: English empiricism, french rationalism, personal faith of the reformation ---> the prestige of the individual.
- literature is obsessed with the author, the indivudual.
"his person, his history, his tastes, his passions"
I guess we live in a time where this makes sense, a man is a product of his time, so to understand the man one must understand the time in which he lived. Makes sense.
- baudelaire's work, failing of the man
- Van Gogh's work, his madness
- Tchaikovsky's work, his vice
- the xplanation of the work is always sought in the man who has produced it
Does this not suggest some powerful objectivity? That the writing be written upon stone, factual. Indeed it could be utter crap? who would care of the author? of his words? he may have written the words, would he have attached the meaning, or would we owe that favour to someone else after the work has been completed? ... Van Gogh's paintings had no real meaning..... UNTIL he died. Meaning was bestowed upon them AFTERWARDS....
Interesting point... creation of a work... meaning of the work... when do each of these aspects come into play???? DISCUSS!
- people have tried to topple the power of the author.
- to us it is language which speaks, not the author
- absence of the author transforms the text
- the author-god
- once the author is gone, claims to decipher a text become useless
there is no one meaning... There could be an infinity of meanings.
wont be open to criticism either?
- the reign of the author was also that of the critics
- Balzac.
- greek tragedy
- the reader is now introduced
- the birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of the author
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- second reading + thoughts
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
Roland Barthes [trans by Richard Howard]
The death of the author (1968)
- castrato disguised as a woman
- writer's pov, who is speaking this way?
- will always be impossible to know, all writing is itself in a special voice
- literature - "that trap where all identity is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes"
- voice loses its origin, the author enters his own death, writing begins
- mediator X person
- the author is a modern figure prouduced by society: English empiricism, french rationalism, personal faith of the reformation ---> the prestige of the individual.
- literature is obsessed with the author, the indivudual.
"his person, his history, his tastes, his passions"
I guess we live in a time where this makes sense, a man is a product of his time, so to understand the man one must understand the time in which he lived. Makes sense.
- baudelaire's work, failing of the man
- Van Gogh's work, his madness
- Tchaikovsky's work, his vice
- the xplanation of the work is always sought in the man who has produced it
Does this not suggest some powerful objectivity? That the writing be written upon stone, factual. Indeed it could be utter crap? who would care of the author? of his words? he may have written the words, would he have attached the meaning, or would we owe that favour to someone else after the work has been completed? ... Van Gogh's paintings had no real meaning..... UNTIL he died. Meaning was bestowed upon them AFTERWARDS....
Interesting point... creation of a work... meaning of the work... when do each of these aspects come into play???? DISCUSS!
- people have tried to topple the power of the author.
- to us it is language which speaks, not the author
- absence of the author transforms the text
- the author-god
- once the author is gone, claims to decipher a text become useless
there is no one meaning... There could be an infinity of meanings.
wont be open to criticism either?
- the reign of the author was also that of the critics
- Balzac.
- greek tragedy
- the reader is now introduced
- the birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of the author
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday 21 September 2013
PH4023 - wk1 Andre Bazin - ontology of the photographic image
Structure
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- summary from second reading
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
Andre Bazin (trans, Hugh Gray)
The ontology of the photographic image (1960)
- died 1958
- post WWII writings on cinema
- vol I based on ontological basis of cinema "the cinema as the art of reality"
- vol II relation between cinema + close arts (theater, novel, painting)
- vol III relation between cinema + society
- vol IV would have been Neorealism
To follow: chapter 1 of vol I.
- he was a film critic, informed clarity + perceptiveness
- suggestion that within the origins of sculpture + painting lies a mummy complex
- Ancient Egypt religion revolved around a ritual of death; survival depends upon the continual existence of the corporeal body after death.
- Death is the victory of time, provided man with a defense, psychological need, a comfort.
- Therefore, first Egyptian statue was a mummy
- the preservation of life by the representation of life.
- similarity to prehistoric arrow shaped clay bears (successful hunt)
- evolution of art + civilisation (side x side) relieved the plastic arts of their magic
- Louis XIV was content to be survived by his portrait by Lebrun
- civilisation can't entirely efface our concern of time
- sociological perspective, explanation.
- the great spiritual + technological crisis that overtook painting middle of last century????
- cinema, the furthest evolution (so far) of plastic realism. (beginnings at the renaissance + baroque painting)
- painting has had a varied balance between the symbolic + realism.
- 15th Century, western painting began to turn from spiritual concerns, to a complete imitation of the outside world as possible.
- decisive moment: scientific discovery of the first mechanical system of reproduction, the camera obscura
- painting torn between 2 ambitions: aesthetic, spiritual reality, the symbol transcends the model AND psychological, (to duplicate the world outside)
- great artists have always been able to combine the two (ofc)
- however, faced with two essentially different phenomena.
- quarrel over realism in art (misunderstanding!) psychological + pseudorealism
- medieval art never passed through this crisis
- Why do people assume there is only 'one art form to rule them all' why can they not accept that there could be many?
- perspective was the original sin of western painting
- redeemed by Niepce + Lumiere
- photography freed the plastic arts from their obsession with likeness
- photography + cinema satisfy out obsession with realism
- painter ~ subjectivity, human hand casts doubt
- photography inferior to painting in the replication of colour
- conflict between style + likeness is a relatively modern phenomenon
- Chardin objectivity, not of that of the photographer
- 19th Century saw the real beginings of the crisis with Picasso, CENTRAL
- freed from the resemblance complex
- all art are dependent of man, only photography gains a benefit from his absence
- its production by automatic means has radically affected our psychology of the image.
- photography has power, proof something was there.
- perspective similar to family album, the cinema is objectivity in yimr.
- photography can surpass art in creative power.
- frame mesh wire w/ leaves 3d print ... leaves = pixel? wire cage fit together + sow
- photography is the most important event in he history of the plastic arts
- liberation + accomplishment, it freed western painting
- impressionist realism, opposite extreme
- pascals condemnation
- other hand, cinema is also a language
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
research
- Andre died in 1958, aged 40, from leukemia
- film critic and film theorist
- believed a film should represent a film makers vision
important in the development of the auteur theory
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
summary
- plastic arts (sculpture) + painting may lie a mummy complex
[def] [art forms that involve modeling or molding, such as sculpture and ceramics, or art involving the representation of solid objects with three-dimensional effects.]
- To provide a defence against the inevitable onslaught of time
- preservation of the body after death (preservation of life by the representation of life)
- art + civilisation evolved together and took away this magical property, but not entirely.
- the image helps us remember the subject and preserve him from a second death
- now part of a larger concept, creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real
- is art not more psychology than aesthetics? Of mans need to have the last word... the story of resemblance, the story of realism.
- Andre Malraux [french novelist] describes cinema as the furthermost evolution of plastic realism
- art turning towards complete imitation of the outside world.
heralded was the camera obscurer, a mechanical system of reproducing the world outside
- So now art, aesthetic and psychological, had achieved perspective, but not movement... something to suggest life in immobile works, Baroque art experimented with this.
-quarrel over realism in art stems from a misunderstanding, perspective was a sin of western painting...
- redeemed by Niepce + Lumiere
- Photography freed
- human intervention casts a shadow of doubt
- work without the creative intervention of man
-
- so, photography is superior to other mediums because of its capacity to capture reality, and by extension cinema is the furthest advance of this kind of realism.
- ironically photography seems to be getting less and less realistic as it has continued to evolve on its own. From being a genre that was intended to document and record reality it has become a means to subvert and create propaganda in the world with edited images and the results of Photoshop.
Simon Johnson, MA. Student :)
www.thephilosophicalphotographer.co.uk
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- summary from second reading
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise
Andre Bazin (trans, Hugh Gray)
The ontology of the photographic image (1960)
- died 1958
- post WWII writings on cinema
- vol I based on ontological basis of cinema "the cinema as the art of reality"
- vol II relation between cinema + close arts (theater, novel, painting)
- vol III relation between cinema + society
- vol IV would have been Neorealism
To follow: chapter 1 of vol I.
- he was a film critic, informed clarity + perceptiveness
- suggestion that within the origins of sculpture + painting lies a mummy complex
- Ancient Egypt religion revolved around a ritual of death; survival depends upon the continual existence of the corporeal body after death.
- Death is the victory of time, provided man with a defense, psychological need, a comfort.
- Therefore, first Egyptian statue was a mummy
- the preservation of life by the representation of life.
- similarity to prehistoric arrow shaped clay bears (successful hunt)
- evolution of art + civilisation (side x side) relieved the plastic arts of their magic
- Louis XIV was content to be survived by his portrait by Lebrun
- civilisation can't entirely efface our concern of time
- sociological perspective, explanation.
- the great spiritual + technological crisis that overtook painting middle of last century????
- cinema, the furthest evolution (so far) of plastic realism. (beginnings at the renaissance + baroque painting)
- painting has had a varied balance between the symbolic + realism.
- 15th Century, western painting began to turn from spiritual concerns, to a complete imitation of the outside world as possible.
- decisive moment: scientific discovery of the first mechanical system of reproduction, the camera obscura
- painting torn between 2 ambitions: aesthetic, spiritual reality, the symbol transcends the model AND psychological, (to duplicate the world outside)
- great artists have always been able to combine the two (ofc)
- however, faced with two essentially different phenomena.
- quarrel over realism in art (misunderstanding!) psychological + pseudorealism
- medieval art never passed through this crisis
- Why do people assume there is only 'one art form to rule them all' why can they not accept that there could be many?
- perspective was the original sin of western painting
- redeemed by Niepce + Lumiere
- photography freed the plastic arts from their obsession with likeness
- photography + cinema satisfy out obsession with realism
- painter ~ subjectivity, human hand casts doubt
- photography inferior to painting in the replication of colour
- conflict between style + likeness is a relatively modern phenomenon
- Chardin objectivity, not of that of the photographer
- 19th Century saw the real beginings of the crisis with Picasso, CENTRAL
- freed from the resemblance complex
- all art are dependent of man, only photography gains a benefit from his absence
- its production by automatic means has radically affected our psychology of the image.
- photography has power, proof something was there.
- perspective similar to family album, the cinema is objectivity in yimr.
- photography can surpass art in creative power.
- frame mesh wire w/ leaves 3d print ... leaves = pixel? wire cage fit together + sow
- photography is the most important event in he history of the plastic arts
- liberation + accomplishment, it freed western painting
- impressionist realism, opposite extreme
- pascals condemnation
- other hand, cinema is also a language
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
research
- Andre died in 1958, aged 40, from leukemia
- film critic and film theorist
- believed a film should represent a film makers vision
important in the development of the auteur theory
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
summary
- plastic arts (sculpture) + painting may lie a mummy complex
[def] [art forms that involve modeling or molding, such as sculpture and ceramics, or art involving the representation of solid objects with three-dimensional effects.]
- To provide a defence against the inevitable onslaught of time
- preservation of the body after death (preservation of life by the representation of life)
- art + civilisation evolved together and took away this magical property, but not entirely.
- the image helps us remember the subject and preserve him from a second death
- now part of a larger concept, creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real
- is art not more psychology than aesthetics? Of mans need to have the last word... the story of resemblance, the story of realism.
- Andre Malraux [french novelist] describes cinema as the furthermost evolution of plastic realism
- art turning towards complete imitation of the outside world.
heralded was the camera obscurer, a mechanical system of reproducing the world outside
- So now art, aesthetic and psychological, had achieved perspective, but not movement... something to suggest life in immobile works, Baroque art experimented with this.
-quarrel over realism in art stems from a misunderstanding, perspective was a sin of western painting...
- redeemed by Niepce + Lumiere
- Photography freed
- human intervention casts a shadow of doubt
- work without the creative intervention of man
-
- so, photography is superior to other mediums because of its capacity to capture reality, and by extension cinema is the furthest advance of this kind of realism.
- ironically photography seems to be getting less and less realistic as it has continued to evolve on its own. From being a genre that was intended to document and record reality it has become a means to subvert and create propaganda in the world with edited images and the results of Photoshop.
Simon Johnson, MA. Student :)
www.thephilosophicalphotographer.co.uk
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