http://www.historytoday.com/blog/pictures-or-conversations/sheila-corr/analogue-digital-death-darkroom

Very short, but still intriguing article about the death of darkrooms. I think it's time we embrace that this form of photography is slowly but surely losing this battle.

Truth in Digital Photography: Ervin A. Johnson

Truth in Digital Photography

Though the darkroom has faded into the background with the advancement of digital photography, there has been a resurgence of process based photography especially in the realms of "Fine Art". The truth that used to exist and was inherent to the medium has vanished.

  The birth of photography came with the daguerrotype, an image made on a silver-plated surface, named after it’s inventor Louis Jacques Mande’ Daguerre in 1839. However, this was not the only form of photography to exist at the time. Though Daguerre is generally accepted as the father of photography, he was not the only person working with light sensitive materials at the time. Two other forms of photography also came into existence in 1839 which were invented by William Henry Fox Talbot. One of which involved a camera and the use of light-sensitive paper, which is what is utilized in the photographic darkroom still to this day.  

There are a multitude of reasons why analogue photography should not be so readily dismissed. According to Matthew Biro, “Closer analysis, however, reveals that the divide between analogue and digital practices is not as strong as it initially appears, and that truth in photography depends on multitude of contingent as well as non-contingent factors.”.

 Truth as far as photography is concerned is the burden of the medium. For analogue photography, photo manipulation was nearly impossible. The truth of whatever was being shown was evident, in theory. With the coming of digital it became harder to discern where the truth was, if it existed at all, in today’s image. Unlike most other art forms the growth and expansion of photography is completely dependent upon the advancement of technology. It has become increasingly accessible to the masses simply because of its ease. Biro says that because of the “rapid adaption of digital technologies in photography since the 1990’s”, the medium of has experienced a wearing away of the “truth” that photography was once known for. The viewer must now, more than ever, be aware that what he or she may be seeing may not be based in reality at all. 

Biro goes on to cite Bernd and Hilla Becher and their use of analogue photography to show that the archival quality of analogue exists in a capacity for truth where digital never can. The Becher’s document locations before they are radically transformed or destroyed. By doing so with analogue photography they ensure the viewer that what they are seeing is indeed real. This offers a sort of redemption that digital cannot. This security that analogue photography offers it’s viewers happens because it is more readily believable than that of a digital image. Most viewers believe that silver gelatin negatives cannot be altered. At least without a helping hand from the technological advancements of today. 

According to Corey Dzenko, “Digital photography challenges the historical belief that photography is a representative of reality.” Dzenko goes on to describe the relationship that begins to form between digital photography and its loss of its inherent truth. He says that because the transformation the digital photograph loses it tangibility and therefore it’s basis in reality.

 For example, take any photo presented as an ad in a magazine and the effects they have on most consumers. If it is a beauty ad the consumers are more likely to trust the image as truth, without considering that because it has more than likely been digitally produced, it is then not based in reality. Most digital images produced for advertisement have been retouched, as that is an industry standard and those who produce those images count on the fact that the viewer believes things that they perceive in their reality. 

Dzenko talks about photography more generally and its connection to the object being photographed. He says, “Digital photography and especially its apparent invisible manipulability, destroyed the photograph’s privileged connection to the object.”

. He goes on to state that the death of the mediums inherent trust has evolved into more of a representation of what was instead of telling the absolute truth about the object recorded. Photography today exists in the metaphorical purgatory of today’s society. The public has to come to realize that the “inherent” truth once synonymous with the medium has begun to fade away with the coming of the digital age. 

Analogue photography just doesn’t seem feasible when examined from a point of efficiency. The film has to be loaded, developed, and the images then printed. The whole process takes much longer than that of digital, not to mention it is much safer. But there’s something to be said about the aura of the physical nature of analogue photography. Dzenko says, “This borrowing results from the viewers’ desire for a direct, or seemingly natural, connection between representation and reality.” Take for instance the iPhone applications that mimic the etchings and markings of process based photography. The aura of the analogue ways adds a legitimate base for reality when viewing these digitally produced photographs. A base that exists purely because the old aura is borrowed and stands as a facade for the viewer. 

Cyanotypes

There's something to be said about alternative process photography. Many view it as a one-trick pony ordeal. But if used properly it can really enhance a long term project and take it places you never thought possible.

Ervin J: Thesis

"Though the darkroom has faded into the background with the advancement of digital photography, there has been a resurgence of process based photography especially in the realms of "Fine Art".

Dying Form of Art: Ervin J.

Darkrooms are becoming a thing of the past. I consider myself to be a Fine Art photographer and I think a crucial part of my education has been my experiences in the darkroom. For me, there's no better way to navigate the complexities of photography.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2011/jan/14/photographing-death-darkroom-video

Brian's Thesis

For my (Brian Bullard) upcoming group blog thesis I am interested in discussing how art has transformed and continues to transform the realm of science in a progressive and beneficial way, and how the two work together with each other to further human progress.

Brian B.

(Note for teacher: I haven't worked with citations in a while but I'm sure you'll let me know where I need to make adjustments if necessary.)

I want to take a moment to discuss quantum entanglement with you.  You can find an exact definition here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement) at Wikipedia, and I suggest you read it before you continue if you are not familiar with the term.  What is so fascinating about quantum entanglement is that it occurs on microscopic levels, but scientists are finding that it is universal in scope, even being capable of occurring at universal distances! Not only that, but its effects are such that it can actually have an impact on large-scale systems, which is a truly mind-blowing concept.  While studying quantum physics and entanglement, I began to wonder if one of these large-scale effects could be the entanglement of people, thus explaining certain unexplained phenomena, such as unrelated twins.  I am actually interested in making an art project based on this concept.  I found a book by author and scientist Dean Radin called "Entangled Minds," and after reading through it briefly I found a part that discusses related twins' experiences that could be an effect of quantum entanglement in people.  In the experiments discussed, a pair of natural-born twins are separated and studied simultaneously.  One twin is exposed to a bright pulsing light which triggers a certain part of the brain to fire off, which is then recorded.  The interesting part is when they found that the other twin, being in a different location but at the same moment, showed brain activity indicative of the other twin's experience, when there should have been none.  These experiments have been performed recently by author Guy Lyon Playfair (http://paranormal.about.com/od/espandtelepathy/a/Twin-Telepathy-Best-Evidence_2.htm) if you want to look him up and learn more.

What I am wondering is if physically similar twins that are not born together naturally may also share these experiences, or if their physical likeness may be a result of quantum entanglement occurring in a natural, developmental way, say perhaps when the particles comprising the DNA of different become entangled through some sort of interactions, if one might have an effect on another at a distance and determining the physical outcome of the children.  Just a thought.

Other possible explanations could be inevitability, seeing that we all probably originated from the Fertile Crescent in Africa, an idea explored and promoted by scientists like J.P. Noonan, M. Hofreiter, Jared Diamond and others, however, due to genetic mixing and global diffusion, we simply popped up in different places looking the same.  Perhaps for natural born twins, the direct link in physicality at birth is the key determinant.  But regardless of an obvious twin-state, could we all be linked simply by interaction?

 Many of us have often wondered if we might all be linked together through some mysterious connections, and one of the earliest of these explorations in thought can be found here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere).  It was this line of thinking that has eventually led us to the formation of The Global Consciousness Project (http://noosphere.princeton.edu/intro_bottom.html), which explores other possible aspects that branched off from the Noosphere phenomenon presented by Vladimir Vernadsky.  I first read about Vladimir in an amusing book called "Apocolypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilizations End."  But it is interesting to think that we may all by psychically linked together.  Perhaps this is simply a hope proposed and pursued by idealists with a soft-spot for their fellow man, but the numbers and findings coming out of the research being done are somewhat alarming and warrant further thought and experimentation with an increase in scientific rigor and an appreciation for an open mind, particularly that of artists because we tend to have a knack for making the connections between unlike things that help people to see the bigger picture around us.

So what do you guys think?