Relationship Between Photography and Reality - Coursework Example

Relationship between photography and reality s Submitted by s: Introduction When an individual makes an observation of something, the person makes an extraction of reality from their observation but the brain and eyes usually miss numerous aspects. People see what they want to see as they extract pieces of information from the environment, be it through physical restrictions or intentional restrictions. The creation of information occurs in the minds of persons and the development of reality in which they have a belief in occurs in the same area. Magicians take advantage of this through the redirection of attention and making people believe that something that is almost not possible has taken place. This creates the idea that the entire universe is about information and the contemporary cosmological science are inclined in the direction of a holographic model of existence where existence is characterized entirely by information. Human beings can therefore extract a lot of information for their various purposes where the construction of reality will occur in their minds or on canvas in the case of a painting. A photographer utilizes the camera as a tool for extracting information from the environment and the camera is able to do this in a way that is better than the normal eye (Varis, 2011, p. 226). A camera has an ability to capture information all at one go regardless of whether it is film or glass. On the other hand, a telescope improves the information gathering abilities of a person in the same way the photograph does in the case of the camera. As a matter of fact, the surface of the moon as well as the rings that go round Saturn were at some point considered as not real since the eyes of the human being could directly perceive them until when the human beings first set foot on the moon and gave the feedback to others. Therefore, it can be said the taking pictures merely symbolizes reality since it preserves some information that is associated with different scenes (Wells, 2004, p. 314). The simple mind of the human being will see in the photograph almost all the information that would have been seen in the person was actually at the place where the photo was taken. All that may be viewed in a picture is a closer approximation to the scene that may be achieved in other ways. At the same time, the human mind is fooled by the print into perceiving reality where there is merely representations, therefore, any other aspect that is perceived such as a feeling or a though, is something that a person brings upon himself. The truth claim In taking pictures, the “truth claim” is a phrase employed by Tom Gunning to develop a description of the prevailing conviction that the old-style photos create an accurate depiction of reality (Goysdotter, 2013, p. 55). He goes further to state that the claim depends on the ability to be indexed as well as visual precision of the photographs individuals are fascinated by photographs and the connection between photography and reality, but the richness in perception and amount of detail in the images that is almost infinite has more significance that an awareness of indexicality. Additional, Susan Sontag associates the belief in the ability of a photograph to capture reality to the creation of particular human practices and since a picture gives an occurrence some form of immortality, it would never be enjoyed in other situations (La Grange, 2005, p. 51). Taking photographs has developed into important to the experiences associated with traveling the world and the possibility of true photographs develops the compulsion to translate an experience into an image so that experiences can be made real. The popularity of photographic images has made the distinction between image and reality blurred through pseudo-events such as press conferences or political debates that are televised, which only exist for the sole purpose of creating images. Photographs have also been critical in the redefinition of the humanity’s appreciation of information and actuality where truth exists in perception but not in thoughts. The increase in photography has also resulted in language being replaced by images as the main method of construction, appreciation and testing of reality. According to Susan Sontag, the realistic perception of the world that is compatible with bureaucracy creates a redefinition of knowledge to become a technique of information. In her opinion, a result of photography developing into a key means for appreciating reality is the development of bureaucratic cataloguing and she makes the claims that the perceived ability for photography to provide information leads to bureaucratic organization of the contemporary states. Agencies of control including law enforcement have ability to study and control the society that have become progressively mobile by using photographic means like identity cards and passports. Further, Sontag develops the argument that when reality is repeatedly captured and viewed through photographs, the associated subjects become less real. She argues this by claiming that aesthetic distance appears created in to the experience of viewing photographs and also the amount of horrific images all over the world has made people become familiar with atrocities therefore making terrible things appear more ordinary. Digital photography There have been arguments that the digitization of photography has worked towards undermining the “truth claim” as challenges the dependability of the photograph as a mute and impartial witness of reality as a result of the shortcomings of technological manipulation and the probability of humans refining the photographs before they are produced (Dobrin and Morey, 2009, p. 286). Arguments also exist that consider digital photography as lacking indexicality founded on an understanding of vital distinctions existing between analogue and digital in the manner in which the record reality. For example, photographs can be described as codes that do not have a message, as they are visual contents that can be repurposed since they are made of malleable informational pixels. There are also perceptions that digital photography is a process that involves encoding data concerning light in a matrix of numbers and is indexically defined by the object that are outside camera such as chemical photography. The images that are produced by digital cameras are rendered photo-realistic as they borrow from the aspects of photography and its reality effect so that they may have some form of meaning. Digital revolution in photography Currently, programs such as Photoshop have made it easy to edit photos after they have been taken and apart from making the manipulation of photos possible, they offer the tools required to delete, add and modify the contents of the photographs. These programs have the abilities to perfect and increase the possibilities of what was at some point done in the darkroom to improve the value of a photograph in the process of development as well as printing. The process of adjusting photos after they have been taken is post-processing and it is meant to create photos that will show more than mere reality in a mathematical procedure, which was previously as chemical one. In the present times, people can be able to use computers in the adjustment of the contrast along with saturation, which were elements that previously determined by the film and how it was developed. Nowadays, the photographs can be automatically corrected by the computer in process that does not pay a lot of attention to the images themselves. Work that is more detailed is done after this that involved darkening some parts of a photograph to draw the attention of the viewer to a particular spot such as a bleeding wound being made more shocking or a soldier’s gun being enhanced more. All the adjustments are done to make sure that the attention of the viewer is drawn to various parts of the photograph, which were not as pronounced in the real image. Ethical limits However, there are ethical limits to the process of digital enhancement and they are dependent on what the person enhancing the image is attempting to do. When in the process of enhancing a photograph an aspect that was not part of it is added to the original scene, then the boundary from documentary to a fiction is considered to have been traversed and dependent on the purpose of the photograph, this may or may not be permissible. If the aim is to depict a scene as truthful, then this is not allowed, however, if the goal was to develop a fiction, it can be allowed. Nonetheless, the photographer must be honest and inform the people who view the photographer of what they are doing in both instances. This position is considered an opinion and an entirely subjective value judgment for different people where like all other moral judgments; it may vary and be unique for different people. Regarding making changes to the content of the image, it is important that artist does not attempt to misrepresent their actions. The permissiveness and popularities of images that have been enhanced is mostly due to the perceptions of the people who view them as some prefer to be entertained while not paying close attention to if they are being fooled. As a matter of fact, many people enjoy being fooled, for instance, magicians merely use illusions to perform their acts. Numerous individuals who suspend disbelief do this in terms of entertainment together with fiction although others, including those who have a belief in ghosts and fairies, have lower standards of gullibility than the rational individuals do. What most people consider to be arguably upsetting is the instances when intentional lies and created and presented as truthful through photography. Changes in photography in the digital age from a contemporary perspective Digital cameras have changed the manner in which people behave in public and it is common to find people dining in restaurants greeting the arrival of their food with some excited clicks from their phone’s cameras to capture the images for posterity. A few decades ago, the idea of showing other people a photograph of a dinner that one had gone to before may have been considered weird. Among the most pronounced changes is at events such as concerts and those that involve sports where numerous people take photographs of themselves in stadiums while watching football matches and while celebrating victory. The people who film and take photos at the concert accept that they withdraw from the getting the live experience but at the same time, they go away with the memories which they upload on YouTube and photo sharing platforms to show other people that they attended a particular event. This action of uploading photographs and videos of the events that a person has attended offers the first record of the event and in the process beats the traditional media. The amateur video-takers as well as photographers have awareness that not all the people at the concert have an appreciation for their actions as the concerts are dark and not everyone is comfortable with the flashes from the cameras as well as the arms of the people trying to take the photographs. This can lead to disputes as some of the people use force to elbow people out of the way in order to get the footage of pictures that they want. Another key impact associated with digital photography is the number of photographs that are being taken presently. In the eighties, an event like a birthday would capture in a single twenty-four shot film and this would be considered as a generous photographic record, but presently, with a digital camera, there would be more than one hundred photos taken for a single event. Previous, photography was seen as an elitist activity and expensive, but technology has made the activity almost free and accessible to everyone. Currently, photography is affordable and does not need a lot of effort and thus more people and things are being photographed and these photos shared in different platforms. Since people are taking more photos this days, the quality of photographs has also increased and digital cameras allow people to take numerous photographs at events so that they can chose the best from these. In the digital cameras, all the images can be viewed immediately they have been taken and this enables the photographer to take more pictures if he is not satisfied. Previously, the person who was taking the photo was supposed to set the film speed, make a composition of the photo and manually focus and set the aperture while at the same time choosing the speed of the shutter before he could hit the trigger. However, the digital camera has made this entire process automatic and together with the development that has been seen in autofocus technology, it has become harder but still possible to take pictures that are technically problematic. Digital photography has enabled people to be able to print photos at home without making messes or having special darkrooms for developing films. The digital cameras that can now be found everywhere turn small events that would in normal circumstances generate very small interest into a global phenomenon. With the cameras that are integrated into the phones that are used by most of the people today, some internet sensations like the individual who was lucky to survive a fall while Bungee jumping in the Zambezi among others would not have been captured. Initially, video cameras were found at the events where there was advance information that an interesting occurrence was bound to take place but the development of the camera phone has brought changes to the arena of subjects. Nonetheless, there are serious crimes that are associated with this advancement, for instance, it emerged that bystanders stood around filming a man who was stabbed in Glasgow instead of assisting him. There have been queries on whether the numerous digital photographs that have been taken since the development of the digital camera will last long enough to become important documents concerning life in the twenty-first century. There is a great possibility that most of them will survive, however, the good photos will most probably be lost among the millions that are taken every day. During a single holiday, people take more than five hundred photos, which they do not sort or arrange with specific orders. This means that in about twenty years, they will have more than fifty thousand photos, which will make it difficult for them to find the ones they want. Conclusion There seems to be hardly anything that has not been seen in the times that the new media has come into being and the items that have been stored in collective memory vary from exceptional images of natural occurrences to mysterious scenes of crime as well as a glimpse in the lives of people who may be strangers. The views from the outside world went through the radical changes when photography as well as cinema was invented and this allowed the human beings to become witnesses to events and phenomenon occurring outside their immediate areas and therefore in a sure manner, exceed the limits of time and space. Photography also resulted in a paradigm shift in the eighties in terms of the concept of reality, and while paintings together with drawings had created a representation of the world in terms of the experiences of their artists, their imaginations as well as technical skills, the advent of photography brought the possibility of accurate and full reproduction of reality. Bibliography Dobrin, S. and Morey, S. 2009, Ecosee. SUNY Press, Albany: Goysdotter, M. 2013, Impure vision, Nordic Academic Press, Lund. La Grange, A. 2005, Basic critical theory for photographers, Elsevier Focal Press, Oxford. Varis, L. 2011, Mastering exposure and the zone system for digital photographers, Course Technology PTR, Boston, Mass. Wells, L. 2004, Photography, Routledge, London. Read More