top of page
See me in my works
In Our Own Image
Reading Response
In Our Own Image: 文字
According to Ritchin’s article “In Our Own Image,” the “fluidity of the digital” means the modification of digital photos under the information age. Nowadays, with the help of photoshop, lightroom, and other applications, photographer could change their photos during the post-production phase, sometimes the final version of the photos will be totally different from the original one. The modification of photos could be considered as an improvement of the industry, however, sometimes such modification transmits false messages to audiences, resulting in misleading. One example of a misleading message can be seen in the following famous photo of Lincoln. This is an iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, but this portrait is modified manually – a person put Abraham Lincoln’s head on John Calhoun’s Body. Lincoln, as a founding father of American, maintains unique political and spiritual meaning to many people. However, the portrait of such a famous political figure is altered might create negative political influence.
In Our Own Image: 文字
click the photo to view its original link
In Our Own Image: 圖片
About the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality, I think it can be understood from two perspectives. On one hand, photography, especially macrophotography, could capture an object’s details from a close distance. For example, macrophotography could record the physical structure of an ant, which could not be seen clearly by the human’s eyes. In this situation, there should be no doubt that photography could capture reality. On the other hand, people could say that photography cannot capture reality. By adjusting color temperature, white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and any other functions, people could gain a photo that is completely different from what they see. In this situation, people add aesthetics to their works but sacrifice the reality of photo.
Compared with video and virtual reality, photography is less capable of capturing reality since photography could only show a still moment. However, by watching a video, people could see how an object move while in the application of virtual reality allows people to touch, taste, smell, greatly enhance people’s ability to “sense” a thing. Nevertheless, photography is better at capturing reality than text and books, that is because photography allows viewers to actually see an object while the latter two media only rely on the reader’s imagination, which is easier to generate misunderstanding.
I think whether people should modify their pictures depend on the usage of the photos. If you’re a director of a documentary or a photojournalist, you should not modify your original work a lot, since such an action obeys the law of “reality,” which is a key point in the documentary and journalism area. However, there are a lot of pioneers and explorers in this area, who aim to experiment with a new style of photography. Their innovation demand requires them to use modification app to create the atmosphere they want to achieve. If they cannot use such functions in their work, they can’t contribute breakthroughs in the photography field.
In Our Own Image: 文字
bottom of page