Digital Photography and the Art of Montage, Essay Example

As photography has advanced from primitive forms to more advanced processes using film to contemporary digital photography, our understanding of what photographs are and what they are for has evolved accordingly. In the most basic sense, photographs provide an image of something: a person, an animal, a thing, a scene, and so on. Photography has long been considered to be a truthful medium, one that displays the world as it is. The fact is, however, that photographs can be purposefully, accidentally, or incidentally manipulated in a number of ways. Lighting, framing, development, and other components of the photographic process have all been used to shape how completed photographs turn out. Photographic artists have used the montage technique to produce finished works that combine multiple images together in new, different, and often impossible ways. This use of photography as an art form transcends the boundaries of what is real, or of what can be captured by the camera. The advent of digital photography has opened up entirely new worlds for professional and amateur photographers to produce finished images that are often quite different from what was originally photographed. This has blurred the lines between photography and art in new ways, while also making it possible for photographers to distort reality in ways that are not always easy to recognize.

In the essay “Intention and Artifice,” author and photographer William J. Mitchell explores the history of photography through a rather philosophical lens. Mitchell begins by recounting a political battle between the United States and Libya over a Libyan aircraft that was shot down by the U.S. military. A representative from the U.S. produced a photograph that he claimed was proof that the Libyan aircraft was armed; the Libyans countered that the photograph was not just too blurry to provide any evidence, but that it was actually faked by the U.S. to discredit Libya. This exchange, asserts Mitchell, is proof not just that photographs can be faked, but that everyone knows they can be faked. It is this potential for intentionally altering images that is at the heart of the U.S./Libyan disagreement, but it also underscores that intentionally changing a photograph is not inherently a bad thing.

Photographs can also reveal facts about their subjects that might otherwise not be seen or known. Mitchell points to the example of a series of photographs that revealed the movement of a galloping horse. Prior to the taking of these photographs it was believed that horses in mid-gallop looked very different; the photographs revealed something entirely new. This may not have been the intention of the photographer, but it demonstrates that intentionality is not always a component of the photographic process. What a picture reveals may be as much a surprise to the photographer as it is to the viewer. This reinforces the traditional concept that photography is an inherently realistic medium while also underscoring that photography can provide surprising and unexpected results.

The advent of digital photography has fundamentally altered the relationship between photographs and reality. Photographers can purposely create finished images that appear to be real or realistic, while they may in fact be manipulated intentionally. This also means that photographers can purposely create finished pictures that are not realistic, but are done so with the understanding between photographer and viewer that what appears in the photograph is not meant to be real. These advances in digital photography have potential benefits and also potential negative consequences for photographers. When it is possible to create virtually any image imaginable, the possibilities are limited only by the photographer’s imagination. At the same time, however, viewers may become jaded by the fact that it is relatively easy to create the sort of photo montages that used to be much more difficult, and may cease to be impressed or moved by such images. As is the case with any new technology, new ways of applying it and utilizing it will continue to emerge. Viewers may become bored with photo montages that look like they could have been created by anyone, but truly imaginative photographers will continue to find new and exciting ways to bend the technology to produce powerful and compelling photographs.