Characteristics of Analog Photography
2. “Analogue photographs have always had the power to manipulate and transform reality” (Biro 2012). Discuss.
When analogue photography was first invented, its overwhelming power came from the fact that it recorded nature more realistically than any other art form had ever done before […] people trusted it and believed it portrayed ‘reality’ and ‘truth’ (Lodriguss 2000). The camera was seen as a revolutionary instrument that enabled objects, people and landscapes to be documented in the highest degree of intricate detail and realism, in a way never possible through painting or drawing. This unprecedented form of realistic documentation achieved through analogue photography led to a strong public confidence and trust in photographic truth. For over one hundred years after photography’s inception, there was a public consensus to accept the reality of the photograph as true (Rosenblum 2011). It was this unanimous public trust that fuelled photography to become a platform to manipulate reality, that being, images were in fact being carefully constructed by photographers to suit particular motives or means. It wasn’t until the rise of digital recording and manipulation techniques in the late 20th century when analogue photography’s traditional claims to truthful documentary representation were called into question. The rapid adoption of digital technologies in photography since the 1990s has led to a greater erosion of the public trust in the truth of the photographic image […] as well as a more broadly based awareness of the photograph’s ability to lie (Connor 2010). Despite this, digital photography and image manipulation should not be considered as means to ‘lie’ in photographs, but rather as a new opportunity to expose the truth behind analogue photography. As Share, 2010 states; photographs are never objective. Nor have they ever been, ever since the invention of analogue photography. This paper will explore the reasons why analogue photography had always been
When analogue photography was first invented, its overwhelming power came from the fact that it recorded nature more realistically than any other art form had ever done before […] people trusted it and believed it portrayed ‘reality’ and ‘truth’ (Lodriguss 2000). The camera was seen as a revolutionary instrument that enabled objects, people and landscapes to be documented in the highest degree of intricate detail and realism, in a way never possible through painting or drawing. This unprecedented form of realistic documentation achieved through analogue photography led to a strong public confidence and trust in photographic truth. For over one hundred years after photography’s inception, there was a public consensus to accept the reality of the photograph as true (Rosenblum 2011). It was this unanimous public trust that fuelled photography to become a platform to manipulate reality, that being, images were in fact being carefully constructed by photographers to suit particular motives or means. It wasn’t until the rise of digital recording and manipulation techniques in the late 20th century when analogue photography’s traditional claims to truthful documentary representation were called into question. The rapid adoption of digital technologies in photography since the 1990s has led to a greater erosion of the public trust in the truth of the photographic image […] as well as a more broadly based awareness of the photograph’s ability to lie (Connor 2010). Despite this, digital photography and image manipulation should not be considered as means to ‘lie’ in photographs, but rather as a new opportunity to expose the truth behind analogue photography. As Share, 2010 states; photographs are never objective. Nor have they ever been, ever since the invention of analogue photography. This paper will explore the reasons why analogue photography had always been