Geoffrey Batchen addresses the constant idea that now that digital photography exists and photographs can be edited so easily, we do not believe the validity of the image that are produced nowadays. He explains that soon everything will just be an undifferentiated "artificial nature." Photography is currently faced with two crises. One dealing with technology and the introduction of digital images, and the other having to do with epistemological issues. Essentially, if these two crises continue to thrive and progress, photography will eventually "die." The main point that I took from Batchen's excerpt is that photography itself is a visual simultaneity of the fleeting and the eternal. With the click of a shutter, we can stop time for just one moment. We attempt to bring the past and the present together when we take a photograph - keeping alive a time and space that has died in reality. When we look back on these images we are able to relive these moments and turn back time. | Photography constantly flirts with the idea of life and death, as Batchen puts it. Over time this idea has always be a constant way to describe photography. Additionally, I found the point regarding computerized image-making processes as extremely relevant. They are quickly replacing traditional imaging techniques, especially (but not only) in commercial situations. As a collegiate photography student, majority of the techniques that we learn use these computerized and digital imaging techniques. I very much enjoy working with film, however, with digital in the picture, film takes a lot more time and effort to perfect and I believe that this is something that many other photographers see as well. |