Photography has been around for over 150 years. It has evolved and expanded since it’s introduction in 1839 but it still remains to be seen as the perfect medium for documenting reality. Art critic and author Andy Grundberg tried to understand the medium in 1974, stating that “photography was still perceived primarily as an instrument of social reality, able to represent the way things really were in the world. ” As technologies changed, so did cameras and photographers were able to produce more realistic images for magazines and newspapers.
Because photographs were able to uncover the so-called ‘truth’, when it became known that many historical photographs were fakes and had actually been manipulated to look a certain way, this caused uproar in society. A great deal of manipulation goes into the production and publication of a photograph, so much so that the untrained eye wouldn’t even notice. Photo manipulation essentially starts from the moment a photographer chooses to shoot his subject.
The photographer chooses his subject, based on looks or surroundings, composes the scene to look a desired way and he or she can make the image look however they choose. Art critic Geoffry Batchen explains how even taking a simple photograph requires a great deal of planning and preparation: “Traditional photographs – the ones our culture has always put so much trust in – have never been “true” in the first place. Photographers intervene in every photograph they make, whether by orchestrating or directly interfering in the scene being imaged; by selecting, cropping, excluding, and in other ays making pictorial choices as they take the photograph; by enhancing, suppressing, and cropping the finished print in the darkroom; and finally, by adding captions and other contextual elements to their image to anchor some potential meaning and discourage others. ”
The images seen in newspapers or magazines have been manipulated long before the photographer clicks the button to take a photo. The photographer is able to choose what they want the picture to convey, and while it may represent a distorted truth or an ideal, photographs have never been a representation of ‘reality. Batchen goes on to ask the question: “Does this mean we will no longer believe the truth in the photographic images we see in our newspapers or on our desks? ” To which the answer is, “Iphotographs] have never been ‘true’ in the first place. ”
Society may be talking about the so-called ‘death of photography’ after the introduction of the digital age, with the prospect of fake images this means viewers may have lost their faith in the “photographers ability to deliver objective truth. But in reality whatever image we see could have been staged and distorted, a representation of reality, controlled by the photographer’s vision and created for unrealistic means in a controlled environment. Manipulation in photography is therefore a way to create a scene or subject as accurately as possible. To re-create reality a photographer might have to manipulate his subject so his viewers can perceive it as it in its truest form. While society may have the impression that photo manipulation is a modern technique that came about when computer software became more accessible, however, image tampering is no new thing.
Take the photo of Abraham Lincoln, taken soon after the American Civil War. It shows Lincoln, posing for the camera and standing by a table. The image is, in fact, a fake – an unknown entrepreneur used a photo of Southern politician John Calhoun’s body and superimposed Lincoln’s head over the top. More notable fakes have been of the First World War aerial dogfight. Taken by con man Wesley D Archer, the photos depict an epic scene showcasing the daring exploits of the First World War. These images were actually taken in a studio using model aircrafts and invisible strings.
Marvin Heiferman states: “although we may have the impression that photographic tampering is something relatively new – a product of digital age – the reality is that history is riddled with photographic fakes. ” This claim couldn’t be more truthful, while the digital age has revolutionized photography and made it easier to manipulate pictures, photographers have evidently been distorting and controlling their images long before software like Photoshop. Journalist Lana Bartolot believes that ask fake imagery continued to be exposed during the 1800s, “the relationship between truth and photography was also diminished. It exposed the once ‘secretive’ nature that photographers manipulated their work to display reality and as photo historian Mia Fineman stated: “people then understood that photographs were not always true. ” Digital imaging has only forced everyone to acknowledge that photographs never represented the truth. It has contributed to the argument that photographs cannot be perceived as ‘art’, as they are too similar to real life to possibly be a piece of artistic work.
Geoffry Batchen claims that: “the prospect of that ‘[fake images] is that, increasingly, viewers will discard their faith in the photographers ability to deliver objective truth. But what we must remember is that photographs are not intended to be truthful, they are not there to expose us to reality and the ‘real, they are an artists or creative directors expression, they have never been, nor will never be a reflection of the truth. Section 3: Reality and POSTMODERNISM In order to understand why humans are unable to disconnect our human perspective from reality, we must first understand what Postmodernism is and how it relates to photography, perception and what we deem as ‘real. ‘ Postmodernism is the name given to the defining artistic movement of the second half of the 20th Century.
What started as a departure from modernism, which is understood in art and architecture as the project of refusing traditions to try something entirely new and unique, Postmodernism is characterized as the straightforward denial of philosophical viewpoints. Grundberg defines it as a “reflection of the conditions of our times. ” Post modernists try to dissolve the traditional boundaries between art, architecture, popular culture and mass media. They embrace the idea that how we view artwork depends on its context, and how this can subsequently change its whole meaning or interpretation.
During the 1970s artists began to explore different artistic mediums, for example, making sculptures from earth or using an abandoned building to paint on. Photography was used as an explorative medium, with artists mixing media and adding voices and video to their work. Grundberg goes on to state: “One consequence of the opening of modernist gates was that photography, that seemingly perennial’second-class citizen, became a naturalized member of the gallery and museum circuit. ” According to Postmodern viewpoints, culture is built and our ideas of reality depend on culture, so therefore reality is also a construction of our ideas.
As Theorist Frank Oppenheimer said: “It’s not a real world, it’s a world we made up. ” Postmodernists believe that we are unable to separate our human perception from what is real, so we are therefore unable to know what is truthful. This is why many believe photography to be a Postmodernism art form as photography is seen as a technical form, which allows for multiple, identical reproductions of the image to be made, which could solve the postmodernism dilemma of human perceptual interference.
In a postmodernism viewpoint, there is no space for individualism, because we are all recreations and duplicates of our culture – much like a photograph that has been digitally reproduced or mimicked. Art comes in all forms, borrowing, imitation and replication and for a postmodernist we are all borrowing from culture and reproducing a duplicated product. In relation to viewing photography as a true representation of reality, is what we view as real is simply socially constructed by our own perception? Therefore photography is also a social construction.
Photography is a way of expressing ourselves but this doesn’t necessarily mean it is a version of the truth. Modern theorist, Rudolf Arnheim’s research into film as art suggests that we “expect to find a certain documentary value in photographs. ” He goes on to list the three questions we all ask ourselves when looking at a photo, “is it authentic? ” “Is it correct? ” and “Is it true? ” We have preconceptions that photographs must be true to real life, but according to the Postmodern viewpoint, we all have our own versions of true life, so in actual fact, all photography is a slanted version of our own ‘truth. ‘