There are several forms of favorable and unfavorable bias affecting public perception of the media in terms of digital manipulation. Here's a chart illustrating the possibilities of explicit and implicit bias in attitudes toward photojournalism.
The truth hurts: "Reality is a lie"
Photo Credit: New York Times
It was only a matter of time before an increasingly number of computer scientists began wrapped their heads around digital imaging in a big way, at least in their spare time. That's exactly what Carlo Baldassi, a student in computational neuroscience did, after looking at some pictures of his girlfriend that appeared too constrained and out of proportion. Baldassi has created an automatic photo-editing software tool that always the user to stretch an image without it looking stretched. Peter Wayner's article in The New York Times quotes Baldassi as saying, "Reality is a lie." Nice quote perhaps, but the implications are much more far-reaching as software such as the one Baldassi has made becomes commonplace.
Wayner observes:
Automated tools like Mr. Baldassi’s are changing the editing of photography by making it possible for anyone to tweak a picture, delete unwanted items or even combine the best aspects of several similar pictures into one.
The tools are giving everyone the ability of the Stalin-era propagandists, who edited the photographic record of history by deleting people who fell out of favor.
Wayner's last statement is a bit troubling. Sure, we have the tools now to seamlessly stretch the truth, but do we need to? In my on-going survey on digital manipulation more than 40 percent of respondents indicated that they could tell when a picture had been altered. 
2007-2008 snapshot of the photo manipulation survey related to whether people can tell if a picture has been altered.
2006-2007: Note that the sample sizes differ considerably.
During my time surveying people about digital photo manipulation, a fairly high percentage of people report they can tell when a picture has been altered. I find this opinion interesting, because in my own experience I am not as skillful.
In my own experience, I find myself having less time to carefully scrutinize pictures. I do assume, though, that there is an increase in altered images in the media with the introduction of digital technologies, but because of the volume of pictures flooding our consciousness, I tend, like many people, to just scan images quickly. I tend to judge the authenticity of a picture on the context and source in which it is disseminated. For example, I would tend to trust the authority of a news image in The New York Times over an advertising image any day. This means that I wouldn't typically spend time looking for manipulated images in The New York Times, while I just assume that most advertising images have been altered to varying degrees.
Getting back to Baldassi's software, which is based on the seam carving work of Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir, it makes sense that many of these tools will become commonly accepted by people over time. In the future, we will just expect that the images we see have been enhanced in some way and that the notion of objective reality is nothing more than a passing fancy.
Newspaper promotes photo digital manipulation with readers
The Boston Globe is encouraging readers to send in Photoshopped versions of their favorvite Red Sox players for publication on its Website. Dozens of poster-type images have been e-mailed to the Globe and then posted Online. All in good fun? I guess.
The bigger issue here is that in an age of questioning the credibility and authenticity of digital images, especially in journalism, why shouldn't the newspaper think twice about promoting the practice of photo fakery?
Encouraging the public to rip-off copyright protected images from the Internet and then digitally manipulate them does very little to help people understand the importance of intellectual property rights as well as ethics in a digital age.
The Globe has been careful to make sure it covers itself though. According to a notice on the submission page, the Globe reminds readers that they must have the appropriate permission to use any of the artwork submitted and that the work is original.
By submitting your Photoshop image(s) to Boston.com, you agree that such Photoshop image(s) and the accompanying information will become the property of Boston.com and you grant Boston.com permission to publicly display and use the Photoshop image(s) in any form or media for any and all purposes. You also warrant that (i) the Photoshop image is your original work, or is properly licensed, and does not violate the copyright or any other personal or property right of any third party, and (ii) you have obtained any and all releases and permissions necessary for our use. Your submission also allows Boston.com to edit, crop or adjust the colors of the image(s) on an as needed basis.
This raises the issue of what constitutes a copyright violation when the creator is appropriating other images to construct a collage.
It's highly unlikely that the creator of this Photoshop masterpiece actually owns the rights to the faces of the ballpayers in the collage. Therefore, it appears that the newspaper must be viewing the submitted work as illustrations and not pictures composed of multiple works that are copyright protected.
All in all, the practice of encouraging readers to take material off the Web and alter it, speaks to the slippery slope we are traveling on in terms of not only the veracity of what is seen, but of how really easy it is to manipulate how we see it.
A web of relentless creativity
This blog has suffered in recent months due to the fact that all the free time seems to have been sucked out of the schedule.
Recently, we have been at work designing and implementing a new series of courses at Southern Oregon University called Digital Media Foundations. The inspiration for the project came at a time when the university was wrestling with a $4 million budget deficit. People were being laid off and academic programs cut.
During this period, fortunately, opportunities to reorganize some of our programs also came up. With all the turmoil going on, a few instructors and very supportive deans decided to look into ways of optimizing learning experiences offered to students, especially in the areas of digital art, visual journalism, video production, and web design.
We started out by counting how many courses across disciplines teach pretty much the same things such as digital software applications, digital photography, and digital video. It was actually surprising to see so much overlap in content across the curriculum. The idea wasn't to replace existing courses, but to collaborate on integrative ways of teaching digital and technological skills to incoming students.
After months of meetings, the first of the DMF sequence of courses got off the ground. With four instructors lecturing and working in labs, students are being exposed to thinking through the language of our increasingly digitally-based visual world. In other words, the course explores some of the fundamentals of visual narrative, design, and critical thinking about the creation and consumption of visuals in a digital age.
A digital doodle by Miles Inada introduces students to hues,
values, and saturation.
Interestingly, the biggest challenges have not been in designing curriculum or working with students, but in helping the administration and other faculty to realize the value of an interdisciplinary approach to teaching digital and technological literacy. Despite the perception that learning institutions are often called progressive places, the speed at which change can occur seems to frustrate a lot of people. Fortunately, when momentum and timing is on your side opportunities present themselves in surprising ways.
The first digital photography assignment, called Alphabet Soup,
helps students understand composition as well as resolution
and compression issues in a digital environment.
The Dark Arts: Photography in the age of algorithms and the new realities of digital manipulation
Credit: Carnegie Mellon Graphics
Photography and the Dark Arts? Look out Harry Potter.
James Hays and Jexei Efros are really smart people. Hays and Efros, computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon, report they have invented a whole new way of patching up pictures by "borrowing" pieces of other pictures from the web. They call the method "scene completion", but others will differ them, especially when it comes to how the "scene" gets completed -- by taking content from other pictures off the web.
Credit: Carnegie Mellon Graphics
Scene Completion Using Millions of Photographs
By using the data base of the World Web, with millions of images to pick from, Hays and Efros, have figured out that they can splice slices of reality in a seamless process that differ from previous methods.
The interesting point here is how science, which seeks to solve a problem, often complicates and creates even more problems.
As the image engineers explain:
"Our chief insight is that while the space of images is effectively infinite, the space of semantically differentiable scenes is actually not that large. For many image completion tasks we are able to find similar scenes which contain image fragments that will convincingly complete the image. Our algorithm is entirely data-driven, requiring no annotations or labeling by the user. Unlike existing image completion methods, our algorithm can generate a diverse set of image completions and we allow users to select among them. We demonstrate the superiority of our algorithm over existing image completion approaches."
To their credit, Hays and Efros, have just moved electronic photo manipulation to a whole new level -- they have given the photo industry a bigger gun in which to pass off composites, fakes, and illustrations as wondrous illusions of reality. Not that photography hasn't been dealing with these issues since its inception. It is just that this new process contributes to already growing ways in which digital shenanigans get passed off as "truthful" representations of reality. I can see the Pentagon, politicians, advertising industry, and even more conventional mainstream news operations clamoring for the software. It's all part of the slippery slope of image production in the 21th Century.
Not only are the possibilities of digital manipulation so much greater with this process, there is also the very big question as to what will constitute copyright infringement. Even if Hays and Efros use 1/1,000,000 th of a picture made by someone else, even if they borrow a few pixels here and there without asking permission or paying the owner for that 1/1,000,000th, would they be infringing on someone's copyright? What is fair use when there's a program out scanning images on the web in order to make a whole new image?
It should not come as no great surprise that science would eventually figure out a way to semantically and seamlessly reconstruct images. We already have these processes in place.
However, the implications of this new method add fuel to the already burning argument that pictures could never be trusted as faithful reflections of reality. What you get is not what was seen, but rather only a few pixels here and there of possibly millions of other images.
Thanks to Daniel Sato for the inspiration and the link.
iPhone mania
Southern Oregon sunset made with the new iPhone.
It didn't take all that long to succumb to the power of the new iPhone. I've always been a little skeptical of new fads in technology, but this thing is something else all together. With all the hype about the device in the media I wasn't all that convinced that the phone could live up to the all-in-one personal media device label. It was a pleasant surprise.
Earlier in the day, I asked one of the technicians at school if he had purchased the phone yet. He paused, looked up at me with a smile, and said, "I was on the line the day the phone arrived. I got number 42."
I couldn't tell him that he was a little crazy waiting for hours for a piece of technology, but I can understand the passion.
After only a day, it seems clear that the phone has a lot of built-in potential to stay even more connected than ever. With a calendar, iPod, camera phone, email and the Internet, the only thing it seems to not do is make coffee. Maybe that will be coming with the first upgrade.
Ashland, for a small town, is a pretty wired place and it was easy to maintain access to the Internet and email all day. Now, it's only a matter of time before these device get cheaper, smaller and even more efficient.
Not a pretty picture: When Ad and News Messages Collide
There are times when technology gets the better of us. Yesterday, for example, the technology driving the dynamic web design at MTV.com created irony when video from the Virgina Tech killing spree became juxtaposed against an advertisement promoting the new "Smokin' Aces" movie -- a film that promises to be full of bloodshed and mayhem.
Dynamic web content refers to an interactive design that places elements on a page in response to various contexts. However, this type of interactivity can also end up sending conflictive messages, especially since studies show that viewers do not navigate web content the same way in which they would read in a traditionanl print format.
To its credit, given the fact that technology can bump heads with social and cultural values, MTV is aware that issues such as this one can arise from time to time.
According to MTV, its news staff makes an effort to "....move on removing such inappropriate juxtapositions...Unfortunately, the system did not react as quickly as we did. We continue to do our best balancing the inevitable byproducts of dynamism."
At the same time, there appears to be a critical flaw in the increasingly blurry lines between news and advertising content these days on the web -- one that places a premium on making money through advertising over the common sense and good judgment of providing reader's with news.
Kate Zimmerman writes about another juxtaposition of questionable ad placement on Yahoo -- one which a reader views a story about the shootings next to an advertisement for L.L. Bean.
Zimmerman notes:
"The contextual ads shown against this story are almost completely irrelevant, if not inappropriate - further proof that contextual ad networks need human editors (or at the very least, a way for advertisers to safeguard against poor placement)."
The culture of wedding photography changes with the Internet
Source: The Knot
If anyone still needs proof of how new technologies are replacing older one, there's a recent article on how digital photography is changing the culture of wedding photography.
Kathleen Nevin writes in the Monterey Herald, "You don't want to miss any of the drama or the details of the day, but you don't want to worry about who is preserving your wedding on film, and how your precious photographs will be distributed after the big day. "Internet albums" have replaced the contact sheets and proof copies of yesterday."
The fading memory of hope
Memories fade faster than photographs; and those memories that do remain seem distant and other worldly.
What is the connection between human memory and pictures of past events? Even in a society bombarded with visual messages words will always support the interpretative process.
In the early 1990s, the decade long civil war in El Salvador was grinding to an end. Funding for the conflict, about $4 billion coming in military aid from the United States, was running out. After the rebels launched a “final offensive” in 1989, it was clear that the Salvadoran army would have to accept an uncomfortable compromise.
Meanwhile, hundreds of children, abandoned, abused, and orphaned, found sanctuary sniffing glue and running in gangs near the central cathedral in San Salvador. Within a few feet of the tomb of the slain Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, the children beg coins and commit petty crimes.
The emotional connection between emotions and memories, especially feelings of longing, is very strong in the interpretation of an image. Although meaning seems to lose authority without the context and textual explanation, subliminal and symbolic forces tug at our emotions and intellect.
We assign meaning to images because they are personal – resonating culturally and sometimes even spiritually. The 5-year-old boy, right, provides the symbolism that connects this moment to a more universal human condition.
Impoverished and abandoned to the streets, the child gazes into the lens of a camera and raises his hands in a gesture of prayer that transcends the literal to move into the figurative realm of meaning.
Is the gesture of hands folded in prayer signifying the child’s surrender or is the picture simply speaking to our imagination?
When we witness suffering in a picture memories are conjured up in the mind’s eye.
However, as Richard Crownshaw warns, it may be dangerous to appropriate an image in the mind's eye in order to recall events of the past. Crownshaw writes:
What concerns me here is the potential for adoption to turn into appropriation....to collapse into seeing through one's own eyes and remembering one's own memories instead. In short, what is to stop the colonization of victims' memories and identities?
Source: Richard Crownshaw “Considering Postmemory: Photography, the Archive, and Post-Holocaust Memory in W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz.” Mosaic. Vol. 37, 2004.
Crownshaw's perspective is valuable in reading images that connect with suffering and hope. The notion that the human mind can "colonize" memory and identity, also suggests the potential for apathy and disinterest in viewing images.
From observation to reflection
Photo by Cynthia Edmonds
Success in teaching comes in recognizing those small moments when a student truly begins to realize their intellectual potential through observation and interpretation. When a student "gets it," it feels like standing in front of a 200-member choir singing Handel's Messiah.
Recently, I asked my photojournalism students at Southern Oregon University to reflect on an earlier post I did on observation. They were not only to reflect on what I was trying to say but also go out and practice the art of observation. Last evening, Cyndi e-mailed in her assignment and reflection. The picture above is one result, and the following passage is another:
In theory, it makes sense that a photographer should be in tune with their surroundings and use all of their senses when capturing a moment with impact. It makes sense that to capture the intricacies of life on film, then one needs to immerse themselves in all the details that make up the setting of the photograph. However, knowing something in theory and applying it in the practical action of photography is a complex task.
From an early age our brains are wired by society to see things in a certain way. It is not an easy task to switch gears; however, the more time spent consciously opening all the senses to an environment, the more likely those senses will begin to open up unconsciously.
And now for the kicker:
"A person knows they have been corrupted by their photojournalism professor when they look up into the sky, notice sunlight shining through the clouds, and don’t say, “How pretty,” but, “I like that lighting.” Of course, two seconds later, the clouds have moved and the moment’s gone before the camera can even be raised toward the sky."
I hate to think of myself as a corrupting influence, but if I can make people see the world around them in new ways, so be it.
Another student, Kelsey Richmond, thinks intelligent observation may sometimes even get in the way of making emotionally compelling images.
We as a race in general do not “observe intelligently”, that we do not immerse ourselves in out surroundings and really connect with our world. However, I feel that personally, at least, the more immersed I become with my environment, the more emotional judgment my photographs contain. Only after I have become truly engrossed and connected with, say, a sunset will I go so far as to comment on its beauty. I do feel that to make a photo of a subject, after I have become emotionally involved with it does change the feel, the meaning of the photo. Yet somehow I feel that if I did not take the time to immerse myself, so truly observe the subject, I might never have given it a second thought. I might never have even considered taking a photograph of it. And perhaps my emotion, my connection to the subject is what makes it beautiful. Perhaps my best photograph is best because it is mine, because I composed what I saw into a frame with the intent of making others feel how I felt at that time.
Perhaps, then, thinking about what we see as we go through the process of making images is not the most constructive thing we could do for ourselves and our students. Perhaps, we should just encourage individuals to immerse themselves in the world with their cameras in ways they feel work for them. In other words, less thinking about the act of making pictures, and more doing, more snapping, and learning by doing.
Maybe this is what Kelsey means when she notes, "I sometimes feel that to observe intelligently takes most, if not all
of the fun out of photography." This may well be true for some, but photography is as much about process as it is about product. To arrive at the end, we must understand the beginning and middle as well.
In today's culture of immediate "point and shoot" gratification, there appears a tendency to have a finished, emotionally and intellectually moving result without having to do any of the work to get there. Ultimately, for me, photography is about transformation and humanization. Photography, through observation and reflection, encourages empathy and telling what we believe to be the truth as we see it.
Is this the future of journalism?: Associated Press to collaborate with citizen journalism Website
On Friday, the Associated Press announced it will be working with PublicNow.com to expand access to news as it happens. PublicNow has a membership base of more than 60,000 citizen journalists in 140 countries, while the AP remains the world's largest news gathering operation with more than 4,000 employees.
Potentially the partnership could revolutionize mass media by doing away with the boundaries between amateur and professional content production. It will be interesting to see how PublicNow contributors understand and comply with the conventions, standards, and ethics of mainstream journalistic practice.
According to Managing Editor for Multimedia Lou Ferrera:
"In the early stages of the relationship, AP bureaus will work with NowPublic communities in selected locations on ways to enhance regional news coverage. National AP news desks also may tap the network in breaking news situations where citizen contributors may capture critical information and images. NowPublic also will help AP extend its coverage of virtual communities, such as social networks and contributed content sites."
The collaboration, however, seems to signify a trend in the industry to capture competition for content in an already content-saturated media environment. A few months ago, Yahoo and Reuters joined forces by inviting citizen shutterbugs to submit images of breaking news events.
Although the merger of professional and citizen-sourced content is inevitable in an age of instant communication, the road ahead may be a bit bumpy for an industry already struggling to maintain credibility and public trust.
As images and events continue to flood into the newsrooms of AP, Reuters, and other organization from citizen-sources, what is to prevent public relations firms and the government from trying to make propaganda appear more legitimate. If I worked for a company that wanted to get on the news wires to sell a product or brand a name, I would be thinking really hard right now how to take advantage of the collaborative trends.
Already, news seems so saturated with an array of pseudo-events that stretch the definition of what constitutes relevant and significant information.
Ultimately, wire services and Websites will be challenged to ensure that citizen-sourced media is legitimate and credible. At the same time, maybe the prevailing public perception of mass media as a trustworthy source of information is so low, that it won't really make much of a difference.
Michael Tippett founder of PublicNow.com write in a recent post about the Anna Nicole Smith notes that many people are becoming concerned that the news is increasingly sensationalist and celebrity driven.
What really struck home was Tippett's comment on how news has changed in recent years.
"Where news goes wrong is when it goes from being the messenger to being the message. Where people get bored is when news produces celebrity instead of reporting on it."
The Techno Toilet: All pimped out and nowhere to go
"Fear not, boring toilet victims! Thanks to Roto-Rooter®, the ultimate toilet now exists. They’ve developed a customized, one-of-a-kind throne; a truly “Pimped out John,” designed to fulfill all of your wildest bathroom dreams."
Source: Roto-Rooter Press Release
Sometimes there are moments when you have to stand back and just scratch your head at how far a company or companies will go to catch the attention of the media to sell products.
Roto-Rooter recently announced a sweepstakes where people can enter to win a techno commode featuring a flat screen TV, iPod, laptop computer, Xbox 360, DVD player, exercise system, cup warmer / cooler, and an "emergency" button for service. I guess the only thing they are missing is the web cam.
After we stop laughing, there is always time to think about the curious relationship between new and older technologies. Much of the attraction between functional technologies such as the toilet and newer technologies designed for personal pleasure is connected to ritual and routine.
The toilet is a technology that has pretty much stayed the same for hundreds of years. Now manufacturers of personal media are latching on to ways to push their products right into the toilet.
I can't wait to see what a 2-year-old child would do with all this tech when they are potty training. Or how about the night someone has a little too much to drink.
How Technology Impacts Photojournalistic Routines
Photo by Julieta Aponte
Gary Hershorn, News Pictures Editor, North America for Reuters News Pictures runs test files during for Super Bowl coverage from the kitched counter in his Hoboken, NJ condo.
Kenny Irby of the Poynter Institute reports on how technology is changing photojournalistic rituals and routines in significant ways. Irby writes that new technology, "enables photographers to transmit pictures directly from their cameras to their editors. It eliminates the need for runners, who shuttle picture-laden memory cards between photographers and on-site editors."
In this case, it's Hershorn sitting at home in New Jersey editing the images of no less than eight Reuters photojournalists covering the game in Miami.
Is a high definition life worth the price?
Photo Credit: AP/Nam Y. Huh
We live in a culture that is consumed by conspicuous consumption. This weekend's Superbowl gives us a good reason to reflect on how pathological we can be about spending a lot of our resources on spectatorship.
For example, on the street a ticket to the "big game" might cost you more than $4,000, while buying a new high definition flat screen TV can set you back as much as $10,000. Why do Americans feel so obessed with the latest technologies to enhance experience?
Associated Press business writer, Dave Carpenter sums up the mania well when he reports:
Just buying chip and dip and a 12-pack of beer doesn't cut it for Super Bowl parties any more. If you expect your friends and neighbors to choose your place for the big game, you may have to pony up for a flat-screen TV, digital tuner and surround-sound speakers so they can spectate with quality.
This passage suggests, that big screen TV fosters a community of spectatorship in which individuals gather to share experiences. This of course, is hardly new -- from town halls to sports pubs -- people have always gathered to interact socially around a central event in their lives.
The big question is will buying a $10,000 TV set worth the potential of an enhanced visual experience?
The soul of cyberspace threatened by mega-corps?
I
llustration by Dennis Dunleavy
A posting on the Democratic Media.org website called “The Internet: Democracy or Ad System?” raises some serious concerns over how the Internet is being taken over by mega-corporations run by people such as Rupert Murdoch.
Jeff Chester, Executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy contends: "The Internet's potential to serve as a diverse and democratic medium in the U.S. is now threatened by largely invisible, but powerful, political and economic forces. The nation's largest telephone and cable companies have lobbied the Bush Federal Communications Commission to eliminate the key federal rule that has enabled the Internet to flourish as a dynamic medium of expression and commerce."
For Mark Cooper, Director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, "There is a race to claim the soul of cyberspace between a democratic, public sphere inhabited by citizen journalists, independent artists, and open social networks, and the corporate mega-corporation websites streaming their product over exclusive high speed connections.”
Tortured realities: The camera phone comes of age
The potential of the camera phone image to speak truth to power cannot be underestimated. As James Fallows observes, "History is driven by ideas and passions, and by unforeseeable events....History is also driven by science and technology."
When technology slams headlong into inhumane and unjustice acts, people begin to take notice. Today, we are on the verge of a digital revolution with the emergence of cell phone technologies -- one that can be seen as a positive force used to promote democracy or one that may eventually be used to destroy it.
Pictures from Abu Ghraib of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners,the tsunami disaster, the subway bombings in London, the execution of Saddam Hussein, the massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, and more recently the photographs of Egyptian police torturing suspects suggests the emergence of a hyper-mediated surveillance society.
The motivation to photograph atrocities by the perpetrators, such as in Abu Ghraib prison, Haditha, and in Egypt indicates how people in positions of power and control blindly operate by a code of conduct that is beyond any law -- human or devine. The soldiers and police making these images possess a sense superiority and impunity toward those they deem to be the enemy. The pictures they make may be made as evidence, entertain, or propaganda.
When 21-year-old Egytian minibus driver Imad Kabir was hung upside down and sodomized, his torturers recorded the proceedings with a camera phone and then transmitted the video to the Kabir's co- workers as a warning. The pictures eventually made their way onto the Internet and two police offers were jailed in the incident.
Originally conceived as an act of oppression against those opposing the government's authority, the Egyptian camera phone images reveal the often rumored and insidious truth about the mistreatment of prisoners. It is extremely difficult for any government to deny such cases of abuse when the evidence appears so indisputable.
The camera phone images we have seen in recent years are glimpses of a world we have heard about but have seldom seen. Images of atrocity and abuse, revealing the darkest side of humanity, speak truth to power as history unfolds before our eyes.
The light becomes us
Here are few of the images of mine from the 1980s and 90s in Central America that will be on display at the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon next month. Here's a link to a webpage with more pictures to view. The pictures above are linked to my Flickr site where you can get more details on when and where they were made.
The featured artist for the exhibition, which runs from Jan. 9 - Feb 24, is David Burnett. David's work is more straight new and features 40 years of excellence in photojournalism. The focus of my work has been the idea of displacement and identity. The intention of the show is to give viewers an understanding of how rich photojournalism is in terms of storytelling.
Another stark reminder of where photojournalism is headed
A businessman stops in front of the giant Christmas Tree in
New York
City's Rockerfeller Center to take a picture with
his camera phone.
Credit: Dennis Dunleavy, November 2006.
The Chronicle of Higher Education is linking to a story about cellphones and news content by The New York Times.
Photojournalism Leaps Into the Cellphone Age
Scott Carlson writes, "At first glance, this is technology news: Yahoo and the news service Reuters are going to recruit the general public as photojournalists — the public that is already armed with an array of image-producing devices, be they high-end digital cameras or simple cellphones."
Pictures from camera phones, taken by the general public can be uploaded to Reuters or Yahoo and then distributed to other news services.
Carlson suggests, "Technology news, yes. But it is also another stark reminder that the media are less us here in the newsroom talking to you, and more of you talking to each other. That shift carries responsibility with it. This is an issue for the liberal arts as much as anything."
If true, this trend supports the general theory that information is more about immediacy and quantity than it is about reflection and critical thinking. Camera phones, in this case, will bring new meaning to the old news phrase "Feeding the Beast."
In their rush to get more and more content into the public domain the question arises as to who will be responsible for editing and vetting this new flood of images. Chief among media shortcomings in recent years has been the lack of oversight in checking the veracity and fairness of images. Some new system will have to be put into place if the "Beast" can be trusted.
The anti-portrait
I made this image last night thinking it would be part of my Finding Nemo bath series that I have been doing for almost five years now with Liam.
Interestingly, what turned out, was anything but a cute bath picture with two adorable kids in the frame. Instead, I unexpectedly got an anti-portrait.
It's a real moment showing real children and how they interact. I've always felt portraits were sort of fantasy freeze frames and not truly representative of an individual's personality. Liam, who is being pounded on with a toy by Sophie, was fine after the bashing. I wasn't expecting Sophie to hit her brother and wasn't at all prepared to interevene at the decisive moment. However, you can bet Sophie didn't get to stay in the tub much longer after that one.
This leads me to reflect on the tradition of giving pictures as gifts to family and friends. I don't think I would frame this image for grandma, but I don't think you'd find me rushing off to Sears to have a formal portrait made either.
Ron Leiber, a staff writer for the Wall St. Journal, went in search of a place to have pictures made of his children and found a story at the same time. Leiber visited three chain portrait studios and two commercial photographers. This is a fascinating tale of America's addiction to possessing the perfect likeness of our loved ones, especially our children. We want to remember our kids as angels and not the little devils they can sometimes be. What this story brings up for me is how much money Americans pay for portraits each year.
A recent analysis from the Corel Corporation indicates a continued trend in do-it-yourself digital photography. By 2007, the report states, over 80 percent of home image takers will have more than 5,000 photos and video images stored on PCs." By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Americans, some 80 percent, will have knowledge of how "to manipulate and improve photos or video images," the report notes.
With the costs associated with portrait studios increasing, it makes sense that people will become less dependent on commercial photographers to record life events. At the same time, professional photographers provide a level of quality that would be hard to match for the average consumer.
Staying in touch with technology: Continents away
Saleh, a student at Southern Oregon University, holds his computer up to a window so that a friend back home in Saudi Arabia can see a snow storm in real time. Saleh uses the web camera in his computer to transmit images while connected to others through the VOIP program SKYPE.
Technological innovation in the area of personal media holds one of the industry's greatest potential in terms of growth and development.
Taking Photojournalism by Storm
Photo Credit: Media Storm Blog showing MSNBC.com Director of Multimedia Robert Hood talking with Senior Media Producer Meredith Birkett after placing a bid on Storm's online auction for the rights to Ed Kashi "Iraqi Kurdistan" project.
For some photographers and teachers who remember the “old days” working with younger generations of creative and ambitious students can be challenging.
Challenging in the sense that there seems so little appreciation for understanding how the process of making images goes beyond pretty pictures and packaging a product. By process, it should be said that people approached making pictures differently when it required waiting before results could be seen and shared. In photojournalism, even those the old days -- are well old -- there are still some things that were done that right. One of those things that made pre-digital era unique was the thing that frustrated so many -- waiting and being patience for just the right moment to capture an image.
The liminality of the photographic process – the waiting period between the moment of capture and the development of the latent image – created a mindset that required greater attention to detail.
Not to over generalize how people make pictures with digital technology, but clearly antecedent practices such as manually adjusting the aperture and shutter speed, wracking in focus, and waiting for pictures to develop, influenced conditions of knowing and being. With auto everything today we might be gaining immediacy and productivity on the one hand, while losing the art of storytelling on the other hand. Therefore, the question arises, even if technological innovation makes photography cheaper, faster, and easier, are the images demonstrably any better?
Clearly, it is possible to literally point and shoot with remarkably consistent results with digital cameras. Today, even talking about f/stops and focal points with students almost seems moot. Further, more interesting is the fact that this “upstart” crowd is armed with increasingly compact equipment including audio and video capabilities.
In addition to how much the faster, cheaper, and easier photography is becoming, we should also add mobility and multiple platforms to the list. What can’t be photographed with a motor-driven digital single reflex camera and a two-gigabyte card? Instead of telling students to slow down and appreciate the moment when they come into the zone of photographic consciousness, all you can say is “Wow. Where do we go from here?”
New technologies make it possible to tell stories in ways never imagined a few decades ago.
Photojournalists and digital multimedia pioneers such as Brian Storm are on the cutting edge of new trend in creating visual narratives. By joining together of stills, video, and sound this newer form of narrative is creating a market where people are beginning to expect to engage in storytelling that moves beyond the fixed moment of a frame.
Storm’s vision is not just wishful thinking it has become a reality. Last week, Storm’s multimedia company auctioned off the rights to photojournalist Ed Kashi’s story “Iraqi Kurdistan” online.
Media companies from around the world bid on the project during a four-day auction with MSNBC.com placing the highest bid. Not only is the 12-minute piece innovative in and of itself, so to is the way it was marketed to media companies.
You can read more about Brian Storm’s online auction on the American Photo magazine group blog PopPhoto.com or visit MediaStorm online.
Do technological innovations really save us time?
Robert Gumpert is among those rare photojournalists who seek to promote ways of looking at the world through the lens of conscientiousness and compassion. Every so often he sends out one of his thought-provoking PDF postcards that addresses an overlooked social concern. "Tools and Machines" speaks to how simple innovations can have huge impacts on society, the environment, and even the way we look. In this postcard, Gumpert speaks to the truth when he writes:
Who among us hasn't had the feeling that the more time-saving devices we have -- washing machines, mobiles, computers, cars -- the less time we seem to have and the more hectic our lives are.
We have created for ourselves a culture of convenience for convenience sake. Everything, it would seem, appears packaged for us in a way that offers to make our lives simpler, faster, and cheaper.
Digital photography, especially camera phones, are a perfect example of how enamored we have become of technology without considering the implications of such a dependence upon it.
So where is this all taking us as a culture?
Natali Del Conte, a writer for PCMagazine, reported last week on a conference that is looking into future digital photographic markets aimed primarily at women, especially mothers with easy-to-use digital cameras and camera phones. Del Conte observers.
The word of the day at Digital Imaging was "personal." "Digital imaging is personal," or "the experience needs to be personal," or "the devices need to be personal." But the ecosystem has not completely built itself out yet. With so many photo sharing sites with such different features and subscription models, everyone seems to be waiting to see what will stick with consumers.
But does digital photography really make things more personal? I am not so sure. Unquestionably, it is easier to fill up our flash card with images, but what do most of these images communicate -- what do they day about us and our world?
There may be a push in the market to make devices more personal, but without an understanding of how our images construct preferable and often times imagined social realities that distract us from arriving at really deeper intimacies with ourselves and the world we live, the whole thing appears to be, once again, about making money.
Thoughts on the Wired World
Photo Credit: Dennis Dunleavy
Like all human endeavors, technology can be like a double-edged sword. There are wonderful things about technology — assuming it is used to improve our lives, help us communicate better, and make our day to day world easier. On the back side of all the positives, however, there is the feeling that in our rush to accept all the changes technology offers we are also missing something.
I think with all the advantages of text and instant messaging, blogging, podcasting, and digital camera phones, society seems to find itself defaulting to the convenience of immediacy over intimacy. Human beings have certain fundamental needs and face-to-face interaction still remains high up on my list of characteristics.
Our fascination with the computer-mediated world we’ve created begins at the earliest of ages through the instant gratification that clicking a keyboard or moving a mouse brings.
More often now, children in wired environments are moving their media consumption from the television to the Internet. Young people develop a sophistication and acumen with the technology that older generations struggle to understand.
Technological literacy in a digitally mediated universe is imperative, but we must also be careful not to jetison some of our antecedent principles and values in the process. What comes to mind, first and foremost, is the notion of civility in how we communicate with one another. Spam — it’s not just another four-letter-word — it’s the idea that we can avoid confronting others in honest and open ways through passive aggressive behaviors.
Like road rage, spam and flame mail is about venting without thinking. This is what technology enables us to do — spew without considering the consequences of our actions. Just ask disgraced politician Mark Foley, R-Fla., about his indulgences with instant messaging and teenage pages in the White House. The point is that immediacy does not automatically tranlate to intimacy. Despite the attraction of instant and auto everything in our lives today we must still practice the discipline of reflection and patience.
Brendan Koerner (2001) in “Getting the news: How technology is revolutionizing the media,” suggests, “….Consumers are not automatons who simply want to be showered with raw data. The media enviornment may be changing at breakneck speed, but some aspects of human nature will be slow to change” (p.9).
BLOGROLL
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Signs and Symbol Resources
- Symbols | The Art of Wonder
- Symbols and Symbolism, Symbolic Images, Meanings, Interpretations - Ready Reference Center at Middletown Thrall Library - Web Research, Websites, Internet Resources
- State Symbols USA | Official State and National Symbols, Emblems, Icons
- Ancient Symbols, meanings of symbols from Ancient Egyptian,Celtic, Greek, etc.
- ANCIENT WISDOM
- Signs, Symbols, Meanings
- Online Symbolism Dictionary
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- James Howe MIT course Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism
- Peter Russell
- List of Stone Age art - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- How Symbols are Created
- Language & Symbols | The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program
- Symbolism | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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