Coberlin (2014) Lecture. Fred Ritchin. Bending the
Frame. [online] [Accessed 1/7/17] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541UY8jgkxU
Ritchin, F. (2008) Towards a Hyperphotography: After
Photography. New York. W.W. Norton and co. (Pp 141-162)
Towards a hyperphotography
Hyperphotography is an emerging
paradigm (Ritchin, 2009:141) which enables digital photographs to be “linked,
transmitted, recontextualised and fabricated” in a way which is not done with
analogue photographs. Because a digital photo is composed of rows of pixels
which are individually defined by colour and hue rather than chemicals, it
makes it easier to modify and change the original photo. Whereas an analogue
photo records a fraction of the second and is taken at the decisive moment, the
digital photo can be made to appear longer by joining it to hyperlinks and
other media. Ideas using hyperphotography include surveillance (baby monitors,
CCTV, webcam live streaming, Facebook live etc) and a snapshot can be taken
from the streaming. Time becomes elastic – it is more about the position of the
observer.
The photograph’s frame stores
information which helps to contextualise and amplify the meaning of the
image.
Cameras are found in all sorts of
places such as phones, walls, Google glasses, Dash cams (ethics are a
consideration as the subject does not know that they are being recorded as the
devices do not look like cameras.) Cameras are becoming the future and will be
able to warn of disease and prevent avoidable fires by monitoring and alerting
the user to potentially dangerous situations. Today the Guardian ran an article
on a £99 fridge camera, cheaper than the market’s existing £4,500 fridges which
along with an app monitors use by dates, sends messages to use up whatever is
at the back of the fridge and suggests recipes in a bid to lessen food wastage.
Virtual portraits and avatars are
more the norm rather than something which would have been in the future.
Landscapes were made of unreal places by feeding photographs into a computer
(Joan Fontcuberta “Landscapes without Memory (2005)”. This type of imagery was
intended to assist people in reading the world and understand it differently
from painting and analogue photographs.
Unmasking photo opportunities,
cubistically
Cubism is about looking at the
subject through different viewpoints. Ritchin compares two images of US
soldiers in Haiti, the first is an image of soldiers lying on the ground
pointing guns at the enemy, helicopter above creating some dust. The second
shows a line of photographers taking the image and no helicopter. Ritchin
explains that there is no single truth in a contradictory “double image”
(2009:147) making us question what is really happening. Is it a set up
photograph or are we at war? If people
in positions of authority know that there is a danger of being exposed setting
up situations, they are less likely to go to extreme lengths to deceive the
public.
Many photographs are simulation
of an event. Powerful people have more control over a situation, whilst others
are photographed in a conforming but not flattering manner.
“Photographs made consciously to
echo other photographs, borrowing from their impact could be paired with the
previous image, exposing the vacuity of the idea.” (Ritchin, 2009:149) Ritchin
compares the raising of the flag at the World Trade Centre towers after their
destruction with a flag being raised at Iwo Jima enabling the reader to view
the two images side by side.
A
recent article in The Guardian of President Trump’s inauguration (2017) compared
his popularity to the inauguration of President Obama (2009).
 |
Donald
Trump’s inauguration crowd, left, and Barack Obama’s inauguration crowd.
Photograph: Staff/Reuters
|
Two photos taken from a slightly
different angle showing a soldier in Basra. The photojournalist then merged
these 2 photos together which was spotted by someone in the publishing company.
The paper challenged the photographer.
Photographing the future so a
version of it does not happen
Analogue photographs depict what
has happened in the past, but digital photography could predict the future.
Scientists could show the public what global warming will look like in the
future encouraging behavioural change. Ritchin (2009:150) cites Nancy Burson,
Richard Carling and David Kramlich as developing morphed photographs of the
missing child and their family to create an image of what they may look like
now.
An article in The Telegraph
online this week shows a morphed photograph of Madeline McCann, missing for 10
years detailing what she looked like at 3 years old compared to a morphed
version of 13 years old.
Enfranchising the subject
Often photographs of people are
used by newspapers to represent what is happening in the world, although the
person “snapped” in a situation may not be stereotypical of the newspaper
story. Ritchin cites a couple of examples in which the person became the symbol
of the subject. It is important to give a subject a voice; he cites futuristic examples
in which the subject of the photograph speaks out on the photograph. Luc
Courchesne’s Portrait One https://vimeo.com/5827424
reminds me of AI characters in films. This is a theatrical presentation using a
computer which can input, output and process data leading to real time
interactivity and AV participation. The viewers become engaged asking the
portrait questions from a selection on screen to which the portrait gives an
answer. Courchesne has developed the idea to include a Family Portrait which
seems more in depth. Ritchin suggests that if presidential candidates had this
type of presentation, there may be more understanding from the press.
Ritchin explains that the power
balance of photographers, readers, editors and subjects can be changed by the
type of evidence that there is around. He cites Spencer Platt’s photograph of
people driving through a war zone in which he labelled them as “Affluent
Lebanese drive down the street to look at a destroyed neighbourhood 15 August
2006 in southern Beirut, Lebanon” (Ritchin 2009:153) when in fact they lived
nearby and were not affluent.
Reporting as “family album”
Since 2003, Mojo (Mobile
Journalism) has been used to document Tsunami’s, the Iraq war and reached its
peak in the London Bombings in 2005. The news broadcasters work in partnership
with the public using mobile phone apps to record eye witness accounts but try
to promote a balanced view with good quality (Reuters: 2014)
Ritchin shows two photographers who have worked with people with PTSD following traumatic events. I really engaged with Monica Haller's Riley and his story because I have worked with people who came back from war zones and were not the same people. It seems much more personal and engaging than news reports. Jennifer Karady's Soldier Stories Statements are also powerful statements of the effects of war. I think in both of these it is the narrative which makes it personal and links the image to the event.
Photographers have to depict the
communities they photograph with empathy. The difference between working in
analogue and digital is the amount of reflection time available to ensure the
photographs are presented in a meaningful way.
Constructive Interventions
Work has been done around monitoring
systems for the elderly in their own houses such as Digital Family Portrait.
With sensors all over the house, the computer can work out what the person is
up to and which activities of daily living they are doing. The interface is
designed as a portrait and will store information to trigger whether they are
becoming less active over time. The blurb advertises showing family photographs
as a reminder of family which makes them supposedly feel less isolated. It
doesn’t replace family interaction or social isolation but may provide peace of
mind for family members who live a distance away. Other apps are available
which allow you to keep track of family such as Snapchat which will show the
location of friends and webcams to install in elderly relatives’ houses. I
think that whilst cameras and apps may seem like progression into the field of
digital technology, we still have to consider the ethics of surveillance and
decide how much we are willing to embrace. Perhaps the position we find
ourselves in with the technological advances in 2017 is similar to when Ritchin
was writing this essay: new technology is a journey into the unknown and we
have already seen questionable behaviour which makes authorities consider codes
of conduct.
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