Respect the moment!

Photography transcends respect for the moment by peering beyond the two-dimensional replication of photonic energy.  Pictures unconsciously thread their chromatic fibers into the tapestry of our memories. In the eyes of many, the ubiquitous influence of smartphones and digital cameras has weakened the appreciation of photography. Today, without knowing the fundamentals, such as the relationship between aperture and depth of field, an individual can take stunning landscape shots and beautiful portraits. Many believe the removal of technical hurdles trivializes the art of photography. This naive vantage negates the understanding that the ability for all to participate elevates the craft.

Film and analog technologies present abundant opportunities for the amalgamation of the past and future. The timeworn darkrooms, loved by our forebears, sill bring value to today’s digital world. Steeped in the nostalgia and riggers imposed by film emulsions, a macro lens paired with DSLR camera opens up hidden treasures etched in the once photoreactive silver slats. While trying to replicate the impact of the enlarger’s printed image, undiscovered tonal subtleties revealed themselves. In the discovery of unrealized tonality lay the knowledge that analog and digital images have an equal impact and uniquely “hold the wall.”

The traditions and disciplines of yesterday’s authenticity inform our sense of aesthetics. Incorporating classical photographic theory with the riggers imposed by the stringency of film advances respect for the subject by demanding more significant consideration to environmental rudiments. In its limitless control, digital photography both liberates and requires an enduring responsibility to preserver and record some semblance of realism. Without the constraints of 36 exposures, naïve digital camera owners believe indiscriminate shutter clicks will eventually create beautiful images. Just like there film brethren, digital cameras demand reverence for the subject and devotion to standards first conceived in the 1850s while exposing black and white glass negative plates to light. 

During 1936 Allen Turing first described the foundational model of computability. Photographers could not have imagined the underpinnings behind his turning machine would eventually become the medium for processing imagery. Modern digital cameras with their ever-expanding storage requirements are achieving remarkable feats of ophthalmic information collection. Blurring the lines of realism is the incorporation of resolving power that provides detail and clarity that extends beyond the original perceptional experience.  Free from the limitations of physical media, digital representation mandate contemplation of reliability, existence, and pragmatism. 

Showing respect for the subject balances’ accuracy with an infinite selection of possible visualizations that will, hopefully, create compelling images that resonate with others.  The omnipresent barrage of digital technology increases our perceptual expectations and advances the influence of photographic imagery. Just as knowing how to use a word processing program is different than authoring literature using a camera only embodies the recording of light without discrimination. Discrimination enables the separation of unique elements that differentiate haphazard randomness from the essence of sensibility and understanding.  Entrenched in a backdrop of overwhelming complexity, the ability to understand, decipher, and display visual imagery has never been more critical.