Is Photography Dead?

Dec 3, 07:13 PM

In a recent article in Newsweek, Peter Plagens asks the question, “Is photography dead?”. As fewer people use traditional film cameras and traditional film and paper companies like Kodak struggle to alter their business model, it’s easy to presume that the old photographic standards, like phonographs and typewriters, are being made obsolete new technologies that are being adopted ubiquitously.

But the article also does point out that new imaging technology puts photographic integrity in a precarious position as tools like Photoshop allow the average user to manipulate images to the point of bringing into question the authenticity of what is being portrayed. Can we trust what we see in a photo these days? The answer? Of course.

Look. Technology is amazing, especially imaging technology. But let’s be frank. The media and the general public has severely overestimated the power of digital image manipulation, as if Photoshop has completely changed the nature of photography. But the truth is, Photoshop simply makes accessible tools and techniques that traditional photographers have used since the dawn of photography. Anyone with a trained eye can spot a Photoshopped picture very easily. There is just a certain telltale look and feel to a “Photoshoppy” image that is so obvious.

Doyle's Paper Fairies
Back in the day, no one needed Photoshop to produce image trickery.

Pasting one image into another in a convincing manner requires perfect alignment of lighting angles, temperature, texture, tone and other subtle factors that give away the deceptive elements in a doctored photo. It would actually be a whole lot easier to take an authentic photo of physically manipulated subjects in front of the lens rather than going through the painstaking trouble of duplicating separate photographic setups with equivalent angles and lighting keeping in mind the final composition (essentially working from the imagination or conceptual sketches) and then uniting the various pieces into one melded image that is undetectably deceptive. Only advertising firms or professional artists with large budgets would go through this detailed process.

So, no. Photography is alive and well. As with all new digital technologies, there may be more regular joes producing more impressive creations, but it is the talent and ingenuity of the few that rise above the sea of technologically shiny mediocrity.