This first week of lectures focuses around ‘The Global Image’ and starts with a brief look at the foundations of photography through Fox Talbot and the Daguerreotype. This first posts responds to the following questions:
1.Do you see any parallels between the historic spread of photography and the transmission of digital imagery today?
2. Are there problems associated with the speed at which the photograph moves?
There are several significant parallels between the early and rapid spread of Photography through the mid 1800’s to the transmission of digital imagery today. One significant factor is the breaking down of barriers to people being able to access their likeness.
Daguerreotypes were an exciting and comparatively rapid way of obtaining your likeness. Where a sitter would only need to sit for a few minutes for their photograph to be taken. This seems absurd today as it is, by modern standards, a prolonged time for a photograph to be taken. When contrasted against how long it would take to sit for a painting, the barriers disappear.
The cost was also significantly reduced compared to sitting for a painting. Photography in the 21st century has taken this even further still. Since the days of the box brownie where one could own and capture their own images for only a few dollars each time, photography has become even more accessible still through the advent of digital photography. Even the cheapest of camera phones provide one with the ability to capture their likeness or their daily comings and goings again and again without need of film or laboratory.
With the development of digital photography and the mobile internet there are issues and problems with how rapidly the photograph moves. Through social media applications such as snapchat, one is able to broadcast their image to the whole world in only a few short seconds. Although this is a breakthrough in technology from the carte de visites of the 1800s, the inability to retrieve this image from the internet poses all manner of risks. These risks are not least found with children using these services.
Due to the pace which these processes work at, ones anonymity is trickier and trickier to withhold.
As a photographer the rapid spread of digital photographs is a double edged sword where our imagery is able to be seen by a bigger audience than ever before. The issue comes in the flood of images making it difficult to see a specific thing. In an over saturation of pretty pictures the ability to be ‘spotted’ becomes tougher and tougher.
Andrews Masters Journey 