I still struggle with the idea of what a photograph represents, reality, the perception of reality, or is it simply light data recorded on a sensor or piece of film that may or may not resemble something we have seen before.
This exhibition, "What is a Photograph", challenged the idea even further by examining the rise of digital photography and with it, the opportunities is presents to photographers not just as those who record people, places, and things, but to the photographic artist as well. It examined the idea of the merging of analog and digital photographic mediums and how the two together have created some incredibly exciting and challenging works of art, but are they photographs?
I can only imagine that this look at the reinvention of photography as an artists medium would have helped open my eyes to the possibilities of going beyond the image, and allowing myself to be open to the limitless possibilities, with the image only being the beginning.
The image I chose as an example of what was shown at the exhibition is one that makes me think of the movie "Natural Born Killers". The director, Oliver Stone, used images very similar to this throughout the entire movie, green hues, black and white with color mix, double exposures and just about any other trick in the book to show the journey of the characters in a way that no performance alone could do. Thinking about it now, he must have considered it necessary to tell the story he wanted to tell, and it would not have had nearly the same effect on the audience, had it been shot and edited like any other film. Due to the nature of the film and it's incredibly violent content, it gave it all a fantasy feel that in a way, toned it down and made it more palatable.
It seems that one day I may need to use such tricks in order to tell the stories I wish to tell in my photographs.
