[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [microsound] Post-digital photography

If I've interpreted what you wrote correctly, you don't think photography is any different from other 2-D visual media because the results are always images. Consequently, there's nothing unique about digital photography.

But the images produced by painting, photography, drawing, etc. are unique from each other in the ways they reflect their different tools. Such reflections would be clearly visible if a painting, a photograph and a drawing were made of the same object, all from the same angle, in the same light, etc. I think it is indisputable that the three images would look different from each other due to the tools, etc. that were used.

What is more controversial is the idea that a digital photo and a film photo are distinguishable from each other. I personally think that digital photos are usually relatively indistinguishable from film photos, that the differences are only noticeable upon close inspection. However, I think that digital photography as a practice and the digital works produced do not need to be so similar to film photography, that the differences between the two can be more pronounced. The reason why I refer to this new approach as 'post-digital' (and the reason why I posted the topic on this list) is because it is resembles the 'post-digital approach in music that, among other things, highlights the differences between works of non-digital music technology and those of digital tools.

Obviously, such visual works might not be of interest to everyone, but to many people 'abstract photography' is photography reflecting the abstractions made possible by film photography's tools; however, they still call it a 'photograph'. If they view a 'abstract' digital photo displaying the abstractions of digital technology, they find it hard to accept it as a photograph, preferring to call it a 'digital image'.

Whereas photography may have struggled to be considered a 'real art', 'digital photography' needs to be no longer considered as 'film photography with different tools', but as a distinct form of photography, not just by its viewers but by its practitioners. This is why the differences need to be discussed, so that the full potential of digital photography can be explored by artists and viewers, even if this exploration is just another way of ?putting a mark on a surface/screen.?

Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:44:00 -0700
To: microsound <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: John Hopkins <jhopkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [microsound] Post-digital photography
Message-Id: <p06110424c0ed82a1e218@[192.168.0.3]>

>I'm interested in the idea that the post-digital aesthetic that is
>often discussed with relation to music also exists in digital
>photography. I.e. there are approaches to digital photography that
>question its techniques, claims, technology, etc.

IMHO, as an artist who has worked with traditional photography
extensively along with film, sonic and video things, I find that
discussing technological differences to be beside the point --
photography, after years of trying to distinguish itself as "real
art" versus painting and sculpture and printmaking, ended up in a
sterile corner of self-circumscribed uniqueness and got brushed out
of the way as a medium when digital came along.

In the end photography is simply another way of putting a mark on a
2-dimensional surface or screen.  It joins drawing, printmaking,
painting, video, film, and all the other ways of putting a mark on a
surface/screen.

nothing particularly unique about digital in that regard.

Of course one can get into long discussions about the syntax (or the
'look') of each different medium, and there are definitely certain
political-economic peculiarities with digital media, but the final
use ends up being the same.

perhaps I could make the heretical comparison in music as well.
music is a way of generating a (most times) shared sonic energy
environment no matter how it is produced...

cheers
John




---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org