Forum: Photography


Subject: When is it not photography...

DJB opened this issue on May 29, 2004 ยท 8 posts


DHolman posted Sun, 30 May 2004 at 3:53 PM

Yes, I agree with the Sparkly one. When I can no longer look at it and say whether or not it was a photograph, I think you may have crossed over into mixed media. Hehe ... I just love meeting up with the photo snobs of the world who feel the overwhelming need to educate you - you poor, misguided boob - to the fact that digital is not true photography ... blah blah blah. I always take great joy in playing with their minds. My favorite line to take is to ask them what the truest form of photography is. This type will almost always say "B&W" photography. Then I'll ask how b&w film works. At which point they happily impart their great knowledge upon the poor fool standing before them. How there are all of these silver halide crystals in the film emulsion. How light hits them causing an unstable chemical reaction that produces metallized silver. How developing stabilizes the crystals. And right about the part where they tell me the final image is made up of exposed metallized silver and unexposed silver salts I look at them oddly and say "Wait ... so each crystal represents a single point in the photo? And these crystals have only 2 states: opaque metallized or transparent salts? And there is no in between state for a crystal? Hmmmmm .... so, what you're saying is that these crystals are bits and that traditional photography isn't an analog but a digital medium?" It's right about here they usually say something like "What? No...what?" And that little evil guy on my shoulder laughs and laughs in my ear. Yes, I'm sick ... but this is how I have fun at times. :) -=>Donald