2025 SPE Annual Conference: Adaptations
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print this pagePhotography is Dead. Now we can make some art.
Rose DeSiano
Friday, November 08 - 1:50PM to 2:35PM
It is time for photographers to enjoy the same euphoria and freedom that painters felt after their medium
was declared dead! In his new book "Bending the Frame", Fred Ritchin successfully argues that value
of documentary photography has fallen victim to speed of dissemination, manipulation and the masses
as author. While we live in a daunting moment for photojournalism, the photographic medium remains
full of possibilities for the artists. However, photographers and image-makers are now being challenged
by photo-driven social media, such as the 40 million photos posted daily to Instagram. We as "trained
professionals" must take back the photograph and do more with it, surpassing the "civilian" participation
in image making and sharing. We must control the power of disbelief that Ritchin refers to by using pixel
manipulation as our tool!!
So often digital manipulation is linked to photo theory through Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction" or similarly "technically-centric" essays. This way of understanding digital
manipulation disconnects it from other photographic practices. As the focus is placed on processes and
methods of manipulation, rather than on how the final image functions as a thought-provoking art work,
our ability to understand how photography has changed is hindered. In order to say, "Yes, retouched,
manipulated and composited photographs are the NEW photography," we need to re-contextualize
manipulated photographs.
I have found the digital manipulation during post-production to be a crucial part of my own photographic
practice. Now it has become an integral part of my students' photographic education. It has allowed
me to revive the value of artistic process as investigation and to reconnect photography to its original
tradition of careful observation and well-crafted composition, where each image is created deliberately
and with intention.
In my curriculum I have abandoned the dialogue that includes questions of "truth" and concerns about
"purity". This is not to say we can turn a blind eye towards overmanipulation of imagery. Rather, we
must challenge our students to create images with meaning in which the content or visceral response to
it overcomes digital trickery. I have also taken it upon myself to slow down the students' quantity of
production and to teach them the artistic discipline. The hi-rez phone cameras coupled with social
networking capabilities and post production filters such as those found on Instagram and Aviary allow
for prolificacy unrivaled by even the digital "point and shoot". Young artists and students are presented
with a burdensome challenge -- they must grapple with how to use use these tools while maintaining a
high level of integrity and critical eye, distinguishing themselves from the modern day "Sunday painter".
I am both a member of and a mentor to a new generation of photographers working on re-connecting
photography to its original legacy. We are slowing down the speed of production and ignoring the
burdensome discourse of manipulation vs. the value of the untouched original. We have chosen to treat
manipulation just as a photographer treats f-stops or shutter speeds as nothing more than a part of
making pictures.
During my presentation I will show my students' art work and the art work of professional artists working
in both, traditional and digitally manipulated photography. Artists include: Abelardo Morell, Matthew
Brandt, Loretta Lux, Rollin Leonard, Michael Wolf.
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