The discussion about manipulating an image, or altering it, from the original capture has been going on ever since I have began working as a photographer for the Los Angeles Office of Education in the 1970s.
Nowadays its called “post-processing”, and in the past we just called it “working in the dark room” when the majority of photographers were handing their undeveloped film over to a film lab, and hoped the results would be worth keeping.
At that time, and as exists now, there were those who claimed straight from the camera was the only true photography.
I recall being accused of being unfair at a local exhibition because I used exotic photographic papers, hand retouched my prints, and mixed my own chemicals.
As I said, the discussion on right out of the camera vs. alteration of the original is still going strong, however, the beauty of this exciting medium is that there is no one-way to capture an image.
Photojournalists and street photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Dorothea Lange documented events and life as it was at a particular time. As photojournalists and street photographers still are.
As to that type of photography, I absolutely agree, any type of alteration is sacrilege. But I need to introduce those righteous photographers that decry alteration of the negative, print, or digital file, to icons of photography like Andy Warhol, Jerry Uelsmann, and Duane Michals, to name only a few that pioneered different techniques in this ever-changing medium of photography.
Documentary, representational, or candid photography is used to chronicle significant and historical events attempting to capture reality.
Fine art photography is the vision of the photographer or artist. And restrictions as to how the image is finally produced do not, and should not, apply.
Modern technology allows much easier creativity for those who wish to use it.
This might be nothing more than purchasing the camera with the best sensor, and mounting the sharpest lens on it, and with patience and practice learning to make exposures that are as close as possible to reality.
Or it might be using that same camera is nothing more than the first stage of many in an extended and manipulative process.
As to the debate, should image-editing software be used to alter the image, or should the image be left as an unaltered record of the scene?
I think that depends on the goals of each photographer.
These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net. Stop by Enman’s Camera at 423 Tranquille Road in Kamloops.
I sell an interesting selection of used photographic equipment. And if you want an experienced photographer please call me at 250-371-3069.