Lemon, Alstromeria and Frost, © Michael Maurer Smith 1991
Like most photographers, I have made the transition from film to digital—at first grudgingly—but now I accept the inevitability and embrace the new creative opportunities it brings. However, I lament some of the changes.
Since a digital image file is comprised of code, it is infinitely alterable. Using programs like Photoshop, the photographer can adjust the file to suit his or her preferences no matter how outrageous. Colors can be changed, items removed or added, hue, and saturation adjusted, and multiple special effects applied. However, this is not really photography. It is illustration—the intentional building of an image over time based on personal preferences, adding and subtracting from the image to suit the maker’s taste. In contrast, traditional photography is predicated on capturing a single moment and not the building, rebuilding and altering of that image over a period of hours, days or weeks.
Of course, digital photography can be practiced like traditional film-based photography. However, this requires the photographer to commit to a set of self-imposed limitations—often based upon a code of ethics, like those of the National Press Photographers Association or the North American Nature Photographers Association.
However, most digital photographers find the illustrative possibilities irresistible and this is evident in the popularity of the high dynamic range technique, and other reality-enhancing techniques commonly seen on photo-sharing sites like Flickr.
The result is a world inundated with billions of photo-like illustrations and fewer and fewer straight photographs. Since just about everyone with a digital camera and a computer has altered their own image files many assume that every photograph they see is similarly altered and enhanced. Consequently, photojournalism is close to dead, and no one trusts a photograph anymore.
© Michael Maurer Smith 2009
Beautiful photograph, Mike. Is that one of Kate’s Meyer lemons? Yes, you’re right about the photojournalism being dead. I remember seeing a photo of the Royal Family at Edward’s wedding. In one, Prince William was smiling. In the other, he looked bored, maybe sour. It was the same photo — not seconds apart, but many moments in photoshop. Much food for thought in this…
Jeanie. Thanks for the compliment. No it is not a Meyer lemon, but it is probably a Meijer lemon.
Welcome to the blogsphere, Mike! With my current passion for learning all things photography at a high, I am thrilled to see your photos and read your insight into the art. This photo is simply beautiful
Judy. Thanks for the compliment. I always liked the simplicity of this image. The National Geographic photographer Sam Abell (one of my favorite photographers) did a similar shot of pears on a windowsill in Moscow that is just superb. If you don’t know his work already I think you might enjoy it.
I’ve enjoyed each of your essays in turn, but this one struck a particular chord.
I’m quite new to writing and blogging, and even newer to photography. I began taking some photos this year simply to provide illustrations and color for my blogs. I learned enough of photofiltre and picnik to crop and frame, and enough of photoshop to add text from time to time. I looked at flickr and other sites a good bit, jealous of the images I found there.
After Hurricane Ike, however, I did a series of entries on Weather Underground’s blog page for those interested in the recovery process. I limited myself to the marinas where I work, and the process of salvaging the boats there. The balance of my entries shifted from text-with-illustration to photographs-held-together-with-narrative text.
One day, as I uploaded photos from my camera, I was stopped in my tracks. I had asked a black man, a truck driver from Dallas, if I could take his picture. He agreed, and I captured him standing next to his rig, looking straight into the camera.
I thought nothing of it when I took the photo. It was just another snapshot. But when I saw the picture, I was stunned. It was filled with a dignity and personal presence I couldn’t have imagined, and it was immediately “recognizable” although I had no idea who or what it reminded me of. Eventually, as I searched through archives and histories of photography, I found Dorthea Lange, and recognized the similarities.
That was the day I began to understand that photojournalism is something quite different from illustration, and grasped an even more important lesson: some photographs never should be retouched in any way.
I learned something else about photography that day – you may not know what you’ve captured until you step back and look.
It’s a wonderful, stimulating site you have here. Thank you.
Shoreacres: Thank you for your very thoughtful comments. Your site is also very impressive.