2020.10.

22
Chapter 5 Visual Technologies, Reproduction, and the Copy TERMS

Question:Explain how digital imagery has shifted notions of truth, realism and
accessibility.

Truth and realism: Political imagery (pg 195-198)--- Hitler propaganda being used in anti
Nazi movement to promote the movement against the nazis. The images used were
considered originals, however due to digital imagery, Jean Heartfield managed to produce
these images in order to critique Hitler's use of photographs used to further his political
influence.

In digital programs such as Photoshop, it is easy to place yourself in locales that you have
never visited or that do not exist in a kind of virtual tourism (fig. 1.13 from chapter 1 beach),
echoing the practice of tourist self-documentation and fantasy in the nineteenth-century
European World Exposition displays featuring the peoples and wares of faraway colonized
places

Henry Peach Robinson, FadingAway, 1858 (albumen silver print from five glass
negatives,95 ∕8 × 15½”)

Fading Away: This 1858 portrayal of a young woman dying, surrounded by her grieving
relatives, was actually a composite of five images constructed to convey what such a scene
might look like (Example of a narrative). *A new real can be created without the use of an
“original”.*This introduces the concept of simulation over reproduction, which is especially
seen in the digital era. Until the 1990s, however, tools for manipulating and recontextualizing
the analog photograph remained, for the most part, restricted to commercial and fine art
photographers. Commercial photographers often used airbrushing and other professional
techniques to reframe, “clean up,” combine, and modify their photographs. These techniques
have now been transferred to a broader market. Today, it is common practice to have
personal photographs digitally reconfigured, to remove now out-of-favor relatives from
wedding pictures, or to erase ex-boyfriends from treasured images.

The idea that photojournalism should be realistic and relatively unmanipulated. Discoveries
that a news organization or individual photographer has altered an image in ways
that significantly change the original image or the meaning of an event have sparked
scandal and debate

a) Official White House photograph of U.S. President Obama and staff watching
live feed of raid on Osama bin Laden compound, May 2, 2011;

(b)
White Housephotograph in Fig. 5.30 A altered to erase Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason,
published in Der Zeitung, May 6, 2011
The image altered (b) was done in keeping with jeweish modesty laws, removing both
women from the original (a)

Truth: Sturken and Cartwright state: “Perspective reflects era specific values and notions of
truth, the real, and knowledge relative to visuality and the individual human subject’s gaze.”
(183)
They continue to propose that the way we produce and access certain truths contributes to
these notions and values. For example, the way digital technologies such as a phone or
camera were made and its relationship with the people who use it creates a new dynamic
that will inevitably alter the way people view the images it produces. It’s stated that all visual
technologies were invented for different uses including political, social and recreational, and
therefore all bring with them new perspectives and new ideas of “truth”.

The Pre-digital notion of photographic truth is the firm belief in photos and photojournalism
being an unaltered/ honest representation of reality. Technology and the digital age has
shaken our belief in a photograph as being an accurate record of an event, as well as our
idea of what truth is and how to assess it.
Along with digital photography came other tools such as photoshop that give anyone the
ability to alter a photograph, there’s almost an expectation that people will alter photos now
that it’s become a part of everyday life. The fact that a photograph can be edited/ fabricated
completely ruins it’s presumed objectivity because it means that no part of any photograph
has to be real. With this new visual technology is the loss of trust in photography.
An interesting fabricated image is one of Obama and the Iranian president shaking hands,
posted by an Arizona congressman in January on twitter with the caption “The world is better
without these guys in power”. This demonstrates how common altered images, even ones as
poor as this have become a common occurrence in politics as well as how despite often
being the ones to edit photos, so many people are willing to suspend their disbelief and take
advantage of the “notion of photographic truth” to validate their personal ideologies.
Another example is a series of photographs done by a Danish photo agency called Ritzau
Scanpix. They demonstrate how angle and perspective can give two completely different
images with different meanings and how these inconsistencies don’t even have to be
intentional to cause a disparity between point of view and truth. In half their photos they
show people standing close together or in crowds, and in the other half it is made clear that
they were actually following social distancing guidelines.
Another visual technology, mechanical reproduction also made people re-evaluate what
makes an original copy “true” and “authentic”. It was determined that an original artwork
does hold truth and meaning and that this meaning, or “aura” is altered in a copy or
reproduction. The art critic, Walter Benjamin decided that even if a reproduction looks
exactly like the original, it doesn’t possess the original’s specific “presence in time and
space” and is therefore inauthentic and untrue.
File:04 figure study experimental digital photography by Rick Doble.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:04_figure_study_experimental_digital_photography
_by_Rick_Doble.jpg

Realism: Realism has been around for quite some time, and has only continued to evolve
through the use of technology. As stated in the textbook, we no longer need an “original” but
instead, we can use ideas to simulate what might be a narrative.After the development of
photographic art, 3D printing came to play in the 21st century. In 2010, 3D printing became
readily available and became a means in reproduction. 3D printing in regards to blueprints
and other architecture became more of a reality than relying on the past 2D blueprint
depictions. Despite the aura surrounding 3D printing, it is a service that is easily accessible
and affordable, even so that a lay person may even own one in their own home. Art practice
was also changed by the introduction of 3D printers to the market in the 2010s. Sculpture
traditionally has been rendered in wood, clay, stone, or other materials by hand or with
machines. Techniques and equipment for die casting, grinding, deburring, drilling, and
forging can be combined with computerized robotic controls and features that can be
programmed to perform much of the labor previously done by hand or mechanical devices.
An example of this would be Beautiful Minds by Anya Gallaccio. The work invokes the
beauty of the futuristic precision technology meeting the beauty of the organic material, clay,
which follows its own earthen logic. Viewers could also watch the process of the exhibit
being created via 3D printing over a period of time.

Accessibility:

The accessibility of digital images get wider as the production techniques increase. Before
the 1990s, the print sent home from the photo lab might have included a duplicate set, so a
copy could be passed along to a family member while the original was logged in the family
album, as well as the “original” negative. Now the “album” exists in the form of digital copies
shared seemingly without limit on social media, all of equal quality, with no recourse to any
original. Digital archives are thus a new way of making history and memory, produced from a
memory bank without recourse to the ideal of an original or even a negative instantiation of
the real. As Ellul writes, “Technique has taken over the whole of civilization,” to understand
this point, our life is relying on techniques even more and more. Imagine when Polaroid first
released in 1972, the notion of “one-step” was brought to the public. People could get a
physical copy of the photograph on the exposed sheet in one minute or two. This seems
impossible before Polaroid came out, another example could be drones. The frame as seen
in drones as digital images shift the accessibility on bringing in new perspectives. With
drones, the image and scaping can be easily record while scouting during the war. In the
textbook, it mentions that “The U.S. military has been using drones for visual surveillance
and bomb strikes in the “war on terror” since 2001.” and numbers of civilians died under
drones’ attack.
（next slide）
This is a giant art piece that is installed in an often drone attack area in Pakistan which is a
innocent child victim's portrait. Artist use this way to against and to challenge the Predator
drone operators.

With digital imagery, the accessibility becomes widers and various, however scientists would
still notice people that when advanced technology rushes into all areas of life, it has the
capacity to become autonomous—to function independent of human control, to define and
even to threaten life.