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January 25, 2012
I've started a Tumblr blog solely for my digital photographs. After dipping my toes into digital photography 3 years ago and using it consistently, I've come to the conclusion that not only are the results of digital photography as good as 35mm film, but that the ever improving digital technology has given rise to a different style and type of photography.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, from a window in Oaks on Market, Melbourne, 2011
In the history of photography huge home-made wet glass plates led to store-bought dry plates which led to 8 x 10" sheet film which led to 4 x 5" sheet film which led to 2-1/4" roll film which led to 35mm which led to digital. Digital imaging is the technological winner these days. Today's digital SLRs replace 35mm, no big deal.
So we need to accept the difference between the two technologies and then work with the characteristics and concepts created by digital imaging technology---information, data, interface, bandwidth, stream, storage, rip, compress, copy, paste, morph, interpolate, filter, composite, etc. The term “software”, for instance, shifts the emphasis from media/text to the user and we need to insert into the information model of author – text – reader the software used by both the author and the reader.
What should be avoided is holding onto the assumption that identifies the pictorial tradition of realism with the essence of photographic technology and the tradition of montage and collage with the essence of digital imaging. The reason is that what is taken to be the essence of photographic and digital imaging technology are two traditions of visual culture. Both existed before photography, and both span different visual technologies and mediums. Just as its counterpart, the realistic tradition extends beyond photography per se and at the same time accounts for just one of many photographic practices.
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traditional photography is now pre-digital photography. There has been a gradual shift in attention from the author to the text and then to the reader.