Digital photography revolutionized photography as a practice and art form. Digital technology in image making arose in the late 1980’s and Adobe Photoshop, a software that allows for editing and adjusting digital images, was first released in 1990. Photoshop was initially seen as a replacement to the dark room, but allowed the editing process to go further than any photographer could imagine. The program allows the structure and contents of a digital image file to be completely manipulated and altered. “In a world of high technology, will you still believe in the truthfulness of a photograph? And does it matter?” –Misha Gordin states in Ideas, Process, Truth. The creation of Photoshop forever changed the perception of photography and challenged the relationship between the photographer and the medium. As William J. Mitchell writes in his book The Reconfigured Eye “Today the very idea of photographic veracity is being radically challenged by the emerging technology of digital image manipulation.” The use of Photoshop calls into question the truthfulness behind images, and to what extent the rise of technically-altered photos depletes the credibility of photos used as documentation. However, what people fail to realize is that photography has always inherently had subjective elements. The photographer decides how to document or depict their subjects; every creative and technical decision is thought through and has purpose. Images are framed through someone’s perspective and intended to be viewed through the photographer’s eyes.
Below is an example of how an image can be altered with Photoshop.
Sources:
Gordin, Misha. "Conceptual Photography: Idea, Process, Truth." World Literature Today 87.2 (2013): 76. Web.
Mitchell, William J. The reconfigured eye: visual truth in the post-photographic era. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. Print.
Gordin, Misha. "Conceptual Photography: Idea, Process, Truth." World Literature Today 87.2 (2013): 76. Web.
Mitchell, William J. The reconfigured eye: visual truth in the post-photographic era. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. Print.