[Leica] Photoshopping truth - a polemic

[photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Philip Forrest)]

The truth is that it's just wrong to edit a photo as much as the one in
question. That's the truth.

Phil Forrest


On Wed, 7 Jul 2010 17:06:48 -0400
Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Most discussions of photographic "truth" tend to obscure the fact
> that ALL photographs are abstract representations of an external
> world. When Margaret Mead showed Tahitian natives black and white
> photographs of themselves and their village, they rotated the photos
> this way and that, shook their heads, and handed them back. "Nice
> designs", they said, "but what are they?" Mead then realized that
> photographs were such abstractions that only long experience enables
> their interpretation.
> 
> Closer to home, your dog does not jump into the TV screen to frolic
> in the fields shown in the dog food commercials. Neither does it
> growl or flee from the TV intruders in your household. The image on
> TV is not the real world to the animal but a flickering pattern on an
> illuminated tube. We see the image as a depiction of reality because
> our intelligence and experience enables us infer the scene from its
> abstract representation. The animal does not.
> 
> The obvious limits to the truthful photographic depiction of the
> world are inherent in the photographic process which represents a
> three dimensional moving scene as a two dimensional static image.
> Lens resolution, color fidelity, contrast compression are just a few
> of the constraints on image reality. Motion picture and three
> dimensional photography remove some limits but add others. Printing
> and reproduction processes add still more. It is possible to fool the
> eye into perceiving an image as reality in carefully controlled
> laboratory situations, but the moment the viewer shifts head position
> or moves with respect to the image, the effect vanishes.
> 
> In addition, our standards for reality are ever increasing. Audiences
> recoiled in horror when the first full length motion picture (The
> Great Train Robbery) showed a speeding locomotive heading straight
> for them. To get a similar audience response today requires IMAX and
> 3D glasses. In a few years year reality might require moving
> holographic images, and ultimately, a Startrek type Holodeck in which
> viewers are allowed to fully interact with the images as a form of
> controlled hallucination.
> 
> And, of course, there is no absolute "truth." By framing a portion of
> a total scene in a camera viewfinder the photographer makes an
> editorial judgment about what "truth" will be presented to the
> viewer. That is as true when photographing natives in villages as it
> is when covering newsworthy events. Even lens selection influences
> photographic truth. Perspective distortion through the use of extreme
> wideangle or telephoto lenses has become a staple of many
> photographers, often substituting for content or creativity.
> Thankfully, many news photographers eschew this trick since picture
> content is still more important to the news media than artistic
> creativity, but thumb through most photo mags. and count the small
> number of images taken with a normal perspective.
> 
> If you think your photographs truly represent the scene in front of
> the camera, I suggest this Turing test for photography. Take a photo
> out of the window of your house, preferably one with a nice view.
> Make the best possible print you can of the negative or digital
> image, then hang it on the wall next to the window. If a visitor to
> your house cannot tell the difference between the view out the window
> and the picture of the view out the window, you have a truly
> realistic photo.
> 
> Someday photographic images may pass the Turing test, presenting three
> dimensional, moving, full color scenes directly to the eyeball and
> other sense organs, indistinguishible from actuality. Until then,
> assertions of photographic "truth" are like assertions of virginity
> among whores.
> 
> Larry Z
> 
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