People using the internet and the smart phone (generic term) have created new meanings for the photograph in their stills and videos. Photographs are recordings of light. For many years photographs were snapshots or professional and you could get 2 out of 3, now digital images are 3 out of 3, they are cheap, high quality, and instant.
One of the most common types of image is “The Selfie,” the smart phone enable you take instantly express your feelings in a quality photograph and send it someone wherever they are. Perhaps one word that comes to mind is a “normal narcissism,” forget the negative associations with the word, its ok, and healthy, to feel this way at times , people really enjoy looking at images of themselves as well as showing them to others and they do not seem to care whether they know them or not. Here I am, do look like a wierdo? or someone looking for love?
People tend to believe that photographic images have some Reality even though for centuries science and philosophy are not in agreement on what is Reality. Here is an image of people and this is what they were actually doing, Yet the image was manipulated using photoshop, for example detail has been generalized and colors have increased saturation,
Doing this gives me an image which is a visual explanation of my feeling(s). “Photoshopped” as a verb implies that the image one is viewing has been manipulated such that the Reality has been distorted or mi- represented.
Yet most photographic images you see in media have been “photoshopped.” For professional use in print or on the internet the image is generally opened in Photoshop and at the very minimum adjustments are made on the image to “optimize” the image for reproduction in the specific media.
Often these “photoshop” manipulations are technical adjustments for production limitations in the specific media to enable the image to look as close to the original as possible, but then again what is the original? An image on film? a digital RAW image? etc…
Is this a real image of someplace where people live? A property worth million dollars because of the land because it sits between two tall commercial building?
Some people who live in houses in Tokyo may have no place to park a car while for others an empty lot is money maker. Fortunately most people in Tokyo respect the property others.
Construction is ongoing everywhere in Tokyo, I make this comment everytime I have been to Tokyo, yet things just go on almost as normal…
I like to wear a vest with pockets, who cares about this man or that man
sitting together…
or walking alone
Sometimes its just the colors, textures and shapes
In our life photographs are always backward looking and futures are unknown, plans while a necessary effort have their drawbacks.
And I still miss, perhaps there is more “Reality” in the line quality of a Matisse drawing than in any of my photographs.
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