Understanding

Digital-Synthesized Photographs
Through * i | | Theories of Knowledge:
A Case Study ofTom Bamberger's Cultured Landscapes
BY Y I - H U I HUANG

W
ith the rapid advancement of technology in the photographic industry, more
photographers than ever {willingly or in response to this shift) are replacing their
darkroom-based facilities with digital ones (Sung, 2008). This technological shift
has changed the focus of the artmaking process in that photographers now
spend more time editing their photographs with Photoshop than finding a "perfect" scene. The
ability to conveniently modify photographs after shooting them has created a new style of
photography: digital-synthesized, or combinations of different pieces of images in one (Skopik,
2003). Photographs of this style are carefully knitted together using a computer, which is
replacing the"old-fashioned"technique of pressing a single shutter button.

At the same time, photographers who digitally
combine pieces of images are anxious to draw
attention away from the sophisticated Photoshop
technical skills required to make these images
(Huang, 2008). These photographers have more
important messages to communicate through their
art than the impressive effects and shock value
conveniently created by the digital tool. After all,
artists' choices of media and styles are not carefree,
but are laden with scrupulous thinking, including
the ideas and beliefs through which they interpret
and interact with the world. In other words, artists/
photographers who use digital tools have certain
messages that they can convey only through the
digital-synthesized style.
In order to understand an artists important
message beneath his or her digital fantasies, I
propose that we investigate the artist's worldview, or
what s/he values as knowledge. As contemporary
architectural theorist Mark Celernter (1995)
suggests, knowledge is the foundation of one's
intention and ideas, and thus forms of artwork. If
we understand how a photographer sees the world,
we can have a better idea about the principles
guiding his or her artmaking. A more approachable
way to inquire into a digital photographer's
knowledge is to ask about his or her views of reality
(Alston, 2006), with questions such as "What is your
definition of reality?", "What notion of reality do
you represent in your photographs?", and "How do
you visualize your reality in photographs?"
In this article, I cite contemporary photographer
Tom Bamberger's photographic project Cultured
Landscapes as an example of how we can under-
stand a body of digital-synthesized work, beginning
with an investigation of the artist's worldview. The
information about Bamberger and his work is
mostly based on an interview I conducted with the
artist on July 7, 2006, in his Milwaukee studio. I also
referred to Bamberger's artist statement, as well as
critics' evaluation of his work.

September 2011/ART EDUCATION 35

 Figure I.Tom Bamberger. Brown Grass (2003). 35x108 inches. InkJet pigment print mounted on aluminum. Courtesy of the artist.
Ifirstintroduce Bamberger's creation
process, including his initial feelings,
thoughts, ideas, and the actual production. I
For Bamberger,"art"is a then relate Bamberger's definition of reality
and the strategies he employs to visualize
verb, not a noun, and it is reality in his photographs. Next, I interpret
Bamberger's multiple layers of reality and cite
a collective presentation suitable theories, such as pragmatism and
formalism, to explicate his work. I attempt to
codify Bamberger's view of reality by
ofa cumulative view of discussing his idea of the work and his
fabrication of the images. I conclude with the
everything he sees. types of knowledge provided by Bamberger's
photographs, from which we gain a better
understanding of his art.
Tom Bamberger and
Cultured Landscapes
Tom Bamberger, a photographer based in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the last 30 years,
produces idealized landscape photographs
that show his constant inquiry into beauty
and truth. In Cultured Landscapes, a work in
progress over the last decade, he incorporates
scientific ideas in the formation of his
panoramas: He takes a small portion ofa
36 ART EDUCATiON / September 2011
straight photograph and seamlessly repeats it
many times in a computer to endlessly
extend the horizontal line of the landscape.
As he states, it is similar to the process in
which a bacterium multiplies in a culture
(LeBrun, 2003).
Bamberger explains that the result of
employing this scientific method is stark
beauty. In the images of Cultured Landscapes,
such as Brown Grass, Windmills, and Wires,
Bamberger shows laconic composition with
very few factual objects. Yet organized living
grass itself shows its pattern and rhythm; a
plethora of windmills with difltrent arm
positions form a dynamic sequence on the
plain; countless rows of horizontal wires and
vertical wire holders present geometrical
forms. In these idealized landscapes.
Bamberger achieves beauty, inspired by
science and manifested through appearance.
Bamberger's belief in science stems from
his education in philosophy and mathemat-
ical logic. He particularly admires the work
of Darwin, whose theory on evolution he
believes has helped us understand how the
natural and social worlds function.
Darwinism has also persuaded Bamberger
that science, rather than God, best explains
our universe and the living creatures on
earth. Bamberger makes no distinction
between the man-made world and the
so-called God-made world. In his view, the
world is the product of the interaction
between human beings and the environment:
"Human beings are a species, just like bees
are a species; bees make the little hives, and
humans make places like New York Gity.
They are all the same" (personal communica-
tion, July 7, 2006).
In Bamberger's view, science, such as
Darwin's or Einstein's, brings truth. In art,
however, things are not that easy. Bamberger
confesses that the question he has been
asking is "What is truth in photography?"
Since he considers science as truth and
applies scientific ideas in his latest photo-
graphic project, he still wonders about his
answers. For him, the solution has not yet
been found; instead, his latest photographs
merely pose the same question in a novel
way. Bamberger cites an early experience in
which he finds a problem with photographic
truth:
When I was a kid, I was on a camping
trip. I was smoking marijuana, and 1
was with some friends. There was a
beautiful mountain in the Canadian
Rockies. So I took out the camera, took
this very sweet little picture of the light
coming down between the mountains.
When I got the picture back, I was very
disappointed because it was not at all
like the thing I imagined. It was 3 "by 3'
piece of paper. If I would have thought
"Oh, my God, that's great!" I never
would have become a photographer.
It is only when people realize that it is
not so great and struggle that they
become photographers. People that
think that photographs look like their
kids, they are not going to be photog-
raphers, (personal communication,
July 1, 2006)
Bamberger believes that in order to tell the
truth, a photograph needs to be beautiful.
The more beautiful it is, the truer it is. He
defines beauty as "a particular kind of form
that human beings find pleasure in"
(personal communication, July 7, 2006), with
intuition as the judging criterion. For
example, he found that the beauty of Paul
Strand's fence photograph does not lie in the
subject matter of the fence itself, but in its
abstract form. Thus, by following Strand's
method to focus on the form only,
Bamberger resolutely "beautifies" photo-
graphs in order to reveal their truth.
In Bamberger's view, art provides a means
to help the artist better understand the truth
of this world. Given Bamberger's configura-
tion of beauty, Monet's haystacks or John
Goltrane's and Eric Satie's music all invite one
to see the world more clearly. In making his
own artwork. Bamberger insists that he
experiences art, rather than representing his
experiences in art. For him, "art" is a verb,
not a noun, and it is a collective presentation
of a cumulative view of everything he sees.
Bamberger differentiates truth from
reality: Truth is an abstract notion upon
September 2011 /ART EDUCATION 37
 Figure 2. Tom Bamberger. Windmills (2002). 23x108 inches. InkJet pigment print mounted on aluminum.Courtesy of the artist.
which people agree, such as two plus two
equals four, whereas reality is solid and may
be experienced with one's senses, such as
punches in the stomach. Insisting that his
own idealized landscape is reality. Bamberger
states that "reality is reality, and reality is
what you make of it" (personal communica-
tion, July 7, 2006). He believes that truth is
constructed, and that direct seeing has never
guaranteed truth. This view manifests in
Bamberger's Cultured Landscapes, where he
constructs reality with his mind, not his eyes.
Propagated grass, windmills, or wires have
no reference to the real world. Such artificial
construction, including those from the past
(such as artificial lighting, high contrast
films, and combination printing), has always
been a major part of Bamberger's artistic
career. Each approach is an experiment to
make photographs more real, more beautiful,
and truer.
Bamberger has certain expectations of his
viewers. He keeps his constructed photo-
graphs seamless; like a regular one-shot
photograph, he does this in order to evoke
discussion about the relationship between a
photograph and its subject in the real world.
He also suggests that viewers create their
own meaning of the artwork by simply
looking at it: "It really doesn't matter how I
did it, or where I took it. The idea behind the
picture [can be understood] just by looking...
just by actually experiencing the artwork"
(personal communication, July 7, 2006).
Indeed, for Bamberger, it is beauty in his
photographs that serves as his best answer to
the truth.
38 ART EDUCATiON / September 2011
Theoretical Understanding of For Bamberger, there is no distinction
Bamberger's Work between the human mind and the world. On
the one hand, since the beginning of human
As stated earlier. Bamberger gives a
history, the world has never been "natural" in
distinct definition of reality: "Reality is
the sense of being created by God, but
reality; reality is what you make of it." He
instead has always been shaped by the
gives examples: punches in the stomach
relationship between human beings and the
are reality, as are constructed photographs.
There seems to be two layers of reality in land. On the other hand, even though human
beings have been in an active position in the
Bamberger's work: his sensory experiences
and his own construction of those experi- restructuring of the conditions, their power
to alter the environment is limited to
ences. As for truth, it connotes a people-
agreed-upon representation of the world, practical instrumentality. Minds offer a
hypothesis, and the world is the laboratory
which in Bamberger's view is achieved by
science only. for testing. Human minds and the world are
inseparable.
The relationship among Bamberger's two
layers of reality and truth may be interpreted Cultured Landscapes manifests
as follows: sensory experiences gained from Bamberger's second layer of reality, which
the outside world pose problems; to solve comes from the mutual forces of hypoth-
these problems. Bamberger creates a better esizing and testing. By creating his idealized
version out of them in hopes of arriving at landscape photographs created from cloning
the truth. Thus, for Bamberger, the first layer from a single negative. Bamberger actively
negotiates what a real landscape should look
of reality indicates a problem, while the
like in photographs. Responding to what he
second layer encompasses experiments, with
has learned from previous hypotheses and
truth as the goal. For example, when he states
tests, this latest move is a part of the
that "you don't make art unless you have a
hypothesis-test chain. For him, his beautified
problem with 'reality,'" the reality in
landscape is more real than the actual
quotation marks means the first layer of
environment; while road constructors'
reality, and the art that Bamberger makes
building each mile of road presents
from that first layer may be his second layer
Bamberger's problematic first layer of reality,
of reality. Furthermore, when Bamberger
his cloning method helps create a more real
states that he is more interested in things that
representation of the world, which exempli-
are real for other people rather than himself,
fies his second layer of reality.
it presents a goal for him. Like Einstein's
relativity. Bamberger is seeking the truth that
represents universal beauty.
 Bamberger's system of thought seemingly
parallels some theories of knowledge, but in
fact differentiates from them. First,
Bamberger's newly invented style of cloning
to create truer landscapes seems to resonate
with structuralism's emphasis on finding the
underlying structure of how things function.
However, his underlying cloning rule is far
from the structure that a structuralist looks
for, because his rule is temporary; it is only a
provisional solution within his long-term
investigation. Second, although Bamberger,
like Plato, believes that the beauty of a
subject lies beyond the subject itself, he
explicitly denies God. For him, truth comes
from science, which is created by human
beings, not God. Lastly, although Bamberger
intuitively judges beauty, he is not a
romanticist who creates art in his mind and
disregards anything in the external world;
rather. Bamberger turns away from self-
expression and embraces experiences of
finding a problem in the world and trying to
fix this issue through art.
Bamberger can be identified as a pragma-
tist who justifies his thought in the realm of
action. Fundamentally, he has a doubt which
has guided him in past decades to experi-
ment, to test, and to find a solution.
Resulting from the problem he experienced a
long time ago, which is that his photograph
of the Rocky Mountains did not resemble the
scene he saw, he has a conclusion: Straight
photographs do not tell the truth. Learning
from science and applying its methods.
Bamberger determines that beauty is the only
path to truth in art. Thus, his inquiry is how
to beautify photographs. Artificial lighting,
unusually high contrast films, combination
printing, and cloning are among his
experiments, which have been guided by the
doubt of, and the goal to find, truth.
Each of Bamberger's experiments is built
on the culmination of what he previously has
learned, and this long-term experiment is
what historian Suzanne Hudson (2007) calls Tile beauty Bamberger is
"an act of faith in light of doubt" (p. 137).
Bamberger believes that beautiful photo- searching for is not oniy a
graphs can tell the truth, but he is besieged
by doubt. His assumption of the viability of
photography keeps his investigation an open
personai vision, but also a
inquiry as he continues to experiment.
Bamberger's pragmatism has been his
common one as pervasive as
instrument; it does not provide him with
answers, but rather a program for more
scientific truth agreed upon
work.
Bamberger's doubt produces insights
by all viewers who simply
based not on metaphysical verification, but
human fallibility (Dewey, 1916; Hudson,
need to iooi< at and actually
2007). Different from traditional epistemo-
logical models where one's theory of creating
experience the artwork.
is the manifestation of one's theory of
knowledge, Bamberger's pragmatism shows
no distinction between knowing and doing.
In other words, his source of knowledge
cannot be isolated from practical experi-
ences. Each experiment renders a piece of
knowledge contingent upon its adequacy in
providing a coherent understanding of his
doubt. Bamberger learns by doing; thus, the
notion of reality he realizes in Cultured
Landscapes is his second layer of reality,
which is an experiment on beauty in
September 2011 / ART EDUCATION 39
 Figure 3.Tom Bamberger. Wires (2002). 22.5x108 inches. InkJet pigment print mounted on aluminum. Courtesy of the artist.
photography, and which serves as a possible
access to the photographic truth.
Bamberger's work can also be explained in
terms of formalism. His criterion for beauty
echoes German philosopher Immanuel
Kant's theory on aesthetic judgment.
Bamberger defines beauty as "a particular
kind of form that human beings find pleasure
in" (personal communication, July 7, 2006).
For Bamberger and Kant, form is the
primary substance in which beauty lies, and
a beautiful arrangement of formal elements
gives rise to pleasure, which is determined by
personal intuition rather than reason.
Furthermore, the beauty Bamberger is
searching for is not only a personal vision,
but also a common one as pervasive as
scientific truth agreed upon by all viewers
who simply need to look at and actually
experience the artwork. Aesthetician George
Dickie (1971) summarizes not only Kant's,
but also Bamberger's view of judging or
producing beauty: "[it] is disinterested,
universal, and necessary judgment
concerning the pleasure which everyone
ought to derive from the experience of form"
(p. 27).
40 ART EDUCATION / September 2011
Additionally, Bamberger produces abstract
artwork so as to highlight its formal quality.
Beauty for him appears in an abstracted
form, rather than in a representation of any
particular real object. Just as Paul Strand's
fence transcends itself and becomes a work
of art, Bamberger's brown grass exceeds real
grass and achieves beauty. Here, although the
horizontal line can be endlessly extended, the
realist verisimilitude is abandoned for a
better design to fit the rectangular shape of
the photograph.
Finally, Bamberger remains true to the
photographic medium by keeping synthe-
sized images seamless. Although he
relinquishes verisimilitude for a formal
design of the pictorial surface, he maintains
the visual perspective and the recognizable
shape of grass, windmills, and wires in order
to create seamless synthesized images that
are similar to ordinary photographs. This act
of going back and being true to the medium
is what American critic Clement Greenberg
(1998) calls "self-criticism" in art, where the
uniqueness, and thereby the limitation, of the
medium is realized. The uniqueness of the
medium of photography, as theorized by the
realist paradigm (Peterson, 1984), is the
"automation characteristic of the photo-
graphic process" (p. 21). In this way,
photographic images are formed by means of
a machine operation, and hence present a
faithful record of the external world without
man's intervention (Bazin, 1960; Arnheim,
1974; Sontag, 1977; Berger, 1980; Barthes,
1980; Scruton, 1983; Waton, 1984). Yet
another formalist trait in Bamberger's work is
that he purposely preserves the appearance
of automation in order to invoke a dialogue
from viewers about the inherent controversy
over the issue of reality and truth in
photography.
Conclusion of the Case Study
Probing into Bamberger's layers of reality
leads to a better understanding of how he
looks at the world, and of the guiding rules
that govern his production of the idealized
landscape project. Bamberger employs
pragmatism in his long-term investigation,
guided by the doubt of what constitutes
photographic truth. His Cultured Landscapes
is the latest experiment in this inquiry. His
first layer of reality, sensory, poses a problem
for Bamberger, and thus urges him to
subjectively create a better version of reality
with the aim of revealing truth.
Furthermore, believing that beauty leads
to truth. Bamberger actively pursues formal
elegance in photography, which characterizes
him as a formalist who values formal quality
as the main criterion for gorgeousness, who
seeks abstracted configuration over faithful
representation, and who maintains the
realistic appearance of photographs in an
effort to be true to the medium. To summa-
rize. Cultured Landscapes communicates
pragmatism and formalism to viewers.
Digital photographers have more
important messages for viewers than simply
demonstrating the technical skills required to
rnake art using digital tools. Investigating
digital photographers' views of reality and
interpreting these views through theories
help identify and clarify the valuable
knowledge provided by their work, which
therefore helps us better understand the
meaning underneath the technological
fantasies.
Pedagogical Implications • What are the basic patterns or strategies
Photoshop techniques should not be the with which I arrange those elements?
primary content in the curriculum for • What are my criteria for making these
teaching the production of digital-synthe- arrangements satisfactory?
sized photographs. Educators can rely on the • What kinds of outcomes or effects do I
investigation of views of reality to help intend to achieve in my photographs?
students create meaningful digital compos- • Do I think I am representing my reality
ites. By doing so, they will give students the in my photographs, and if so, how?
chance to better bridge their beliefs and
artworks, as well as to anchor their photo-
graphs philosophically. The following Yi-hui Huang is Assistant Professor in the
questions may facilitate students' introspec- Department of Media Communication and
tion and stimulate class discussion. Technology at East Stroudsburg University
of Pennsylvania, E-mail: yhuang@po-box.
• What is my definition of reality? Can I esu.edu
give an example, and a non-example, of
what is real?
• If I cannot fully express my ideas in a
single photograph, what entities can I try
to visualize in digital composite
photographs?
• What are my strategies for visualizing
something "unseeable," such as a dream
or an imagination?
• What are the basic components within
one of my composite images? Where do
these components come from?
September 2011 /ART EDUCATiON 41

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honor ofAlvin Plantinga (pp.
81-109). Dordrecht, Ihe
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Arnheim, R. (1974). On the nature of
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Barthes, R. (1980). Camera Lucida.
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Bazin, A. (1960). The ontology of the
photographic image. Film
Quarterly, ¡2(4), 4-9.
Berger, ). (1980). Understanding a
photograph. In A. Trachtenberg
(Ed.), Classic essays on photography
(pp. 291-292). New Haven, CT:
Leetes's Island Books.
REFERENCES
Greenberg, C. (1998). Modernist
painting. In H. Risatti (Ed.),
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contemporary art {pp. 12-19).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and
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Dickie, G. (1971). Aesthetics: an
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Gelernter, M. (1995). Sources of
architectural form: a critical history
of Western design theory.
Manchester, UK and New York,
NY: Manchster University Press.
Huang, Y. (2008). An interpretivist study
of knowledge provided by seamless
digital-synthesized photographs
(Doctoral dissertation). OhioLINK:
http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.
cgi?acc_num=osul 214941623
Hudson, S. (2007, Winter). Robert Sung, A. (2008, Spring). How has your
Ryman's pragmatism. October view of fine-art photography
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LeBrun, M. (2003). Midwest PdnEdu,7{l), 62-64.
photographers project: Tom Walton, K. L. (1984). Transparent
Bamberger. Chicago, IL: Museum pictures: on the nature of
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2003/12/midwest_photogr_l O.php
Peterson, N. (1984). Photographic art:
media and discourse. Ann Arbor,
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Scruton, R. (1983). The aesthetic
understanding: essays in the
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