Hypothesis:Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie?

Opening quote: to set the scene choose an appropriate quote from key texts or source that you have read and understood. Or select something Will Lakeman said in class discussion around ethics using AI in photography.

Introduction (250 words): Describe how photography from its invention as a new technology in 1839 was viewed as a threat to traditional artforms such as painting and drawing. Provide an overview of why photography (like all other art forms) is an illusion and a representation of reality (reflect on your essay earlier on the Origin of Photography). Explain what AI is as a new technology, and how it is already part of lives, give examples (Google, speech recognition, generative AI etc). Discuss both human and societal benefits and potential dangers of AI, again use examples such as Geoffrey Linton resigning from Google to bring awareness, or Sam Altman’s (CEO of OpenAI) being questioned by USA congress. Select one quote by either Linton or Altman and comment (either for or against). Introduce the two images that you have chosen as examples of the above.

The definition of photography is ‘the art or practice of taking and processing photographs’ but how do we know that the images produced are an accurate representation of reality? It is often viewed as a medium that portrays an objective reality, showing the truth of a situation captured within the lens. However the subject, framing and composition of a photograph are all shaped by the choices of the photographer which inevitably can change the ‘truth’ of the images. Whether the photographer has intentionally cut something out of frame, moved things around for aesthetic purposes or even staged the whole image all these factors will affect the veracity of these images. Early photography was viewed as an objective representation of reality but considering how far technology has come, from the creation of the first camera, this may no longer be the case. Aspects such as editing or even AI formulated images are more prevalent in images now then ever before. They enable photographers to be more creative and create their desired outcomes which many would argue, due to these factors, photography can no longer be seen as documentation of true events.

Nowadays, photography is mostly digital, and photo manipulation is easily accessable for example on forums such as photoshop. However it was not always this simple, photographs used to have to be retouched by hand using paint or ink, pieced together in the darkroom from separate photographs which was tedious, time consuming and overall not as effective. Some of the terms we use for editing today were derived from the ‘old fashioned’ way such as airbrushing. All these skills required a the photographer to have a higher level of artistic skill than neccessary for editing images today and, for some, access to a darkroom.

The Falling Soldier is a black and white photograph claimed to have been taken on Saturday, September 5, 1936. It is said to depict the death of a Republican Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth soldier, during the Battle of Cerro Muriano in the Spanish Civil War. The image was staged so does not depict an actual image of warfare and instead was meant to show a staged representation. However, this did not go to plan as they were in an active war zone and the man unfortunately got shot and died. This presents the question of whether this image truly portrays warfare as the staging of the image would make one think otherwise however the bravery in taking the risk to take photographs in an active war zone depicts an accurate representation of the risks these soldiers take on a daily basis in these dangerous places.

The Canadian photographer Jeff Wall photographs are typically postmodern and manage to incorporate allusions to art history and the mass media into seemingly realistic scenes in an attempt to confuse any potentially documentary implications which has lead some people to purpose the question of whether he is a real photographer. He often was found creating a large-scale, fictional image that recall the grandeur and narrative of classical painting, Wall challenges the documentary role that photography often plays. But by mounting the image in a lightbox, his work also resembles imagery from cinema or advertising found in popular, contemporary culture.

This image displays a homeless woman standing over a makeshift shelter that appears to have another person living inside and was shot beneath a freeway that is a well populated spot for the homeless. Wall avoids answering questions about the authenticity of this shot and to what extent it was staged which makes it difficult to decipher whether this is an example of photography lying or not. On one hand homelessness is a large problem worldwide so the image is not creating a false representation however it is difficult to determine the honesty of this shot. This example relates to Picasso’s famous quote ‘We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth.’ as the image itself might not be a truth but the representation of homelessness is a real issue so the image is making the viewer see the reality in that issue.

In conclusion, I believe photography can lie. This is especially considering the technology we have access to that enables almost any altercation to be added, changed or removed from an image. Although, I do not believe that all staged images are a complete deception of the truth as many are presented to display a truth in order to either have an affect on the viewer, portraying a point, or to try and influence a change. Looking back at the two images I previously referred to, I would say that the first image is a more truthful photograph as the photographer was more transparent about the staging behind the image and to what extent the final outcome represented the reality of what the photographers saw. This openness about the ‘behind the scenes’ of an image is very important when wanting images to represent the truth as how the photograph is made and the adaptations, edits or any kind of staging/framing that has taken place, as all of these aspects will inevitably effect the truth of the image.

From my images of St. Malo I made a zine.

Saint-Malo is a port city in Brittany, in France’s northwest. Surrounded by tall granite walls surround the old town, which was once a stronghold for privateers (pirates approved by the king). In the centre of the town is the Saint-Malo Cathedral which is built in Romanesque and Gothic styles and features stained-glass windows depicting the city’s history.

Unedited images:

Edited images:

Mood board:

For two days I took on a role at the Jersey Evening Post working with the photographer David Ferguson to produce images suited to the news story and fit for the paper and website.

For example, Island music had new ownership so i photographed Paul Sharkey, the new owner, around his shop.

These images can be found in Connect magazine

Here are some other images i took:

I also helped David take pictures of a local chocolatier however due to confined space we had to work around getting the angles right which posed as a challenge. This meant we couldn’t fit some of the equipment in the space so had to improvise without a tripod and other helpful equipment that would’ve made the process easier.

I also photographed the teacher strikes that took place in Jersey’s town square. This included images of the crowd that were striking with their banners and signs, speakers and the politicians. Although this task was interesting it wasn’t easy, the large crowds made it difficult to find a good position for shooting whilst also staying out of the way of the film crew. This meant I had to strategically position myself in order to get any worthwhile shots.

After the strike had finished we went back to the JEP office and i selected and made some small adjustments to the images. Once happy with the outcomes they were sent to another department and formatted into the newspaper as seen below:

I also shot a few images for a hidden identity messaging someone to buy drugs for a news article they were writing.

Overall, I found this experience really interesting and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside some of these talented people as I was able to learn a lot from them and see first hand how photography can be used as a job/career.

Dreamstudio is a website that allows you to create images from a prompt using AI software.

This image shows me testing the website to see how it works by typing in a random prompt and seeing what kind of images it creates.

To be more on theme, I started tying to create images based on street photography, specifically St Malo, in the style of Cartier Bresson.

By Will Lakeman

This exhibition was inspired by Fort Regent and was a recreation/representation of his memories and dreams from his childhood spent there.

Not only did he shoot the current state of the Fort, he also used AI software to create images that replicated his memories of the place. These images can be seen as quite strange however this is due to them being inspired by memories and dreams rather than the exact thing showing how our mind plays tricks on us. His work was accompanied by a custom soundscape and included elements of smell and touch allowing visitors to revisit their own dreams.

Here are some of his writing about the exhibition:

This panel gives an insight into what inspired him and the reasons he decided to produce this exhibition which helped everyone to understand the meaning behind his images.

“Everyone has the potential to make art that is meaningful to them. Anyone can be a good photographer, you do not need expensive gear, you just need to care. AI is the next thing that will become democratic. I would love to see other people’s weird dreams.”

Overall, I thought the exhibition was fascinating and thought the use of physical props and the senses added to the atmosphere. This created as close an environment to the fort itself as possible within the gallery allowing the visitors to feel more involved and connected to the exhibition and gave any visitors who had not been to the fort during its ‘hayday’ an idea of the experience.

Will spoke very openly about his Autism and explained how this created his fascination of the fort and it became an obsession. It was because of this fixation that he decided to make it into a project and used his memories to replicate his own experiences there. This lead to him talking about how memories aren’t always accurate and can play tricks on us. For example, he spoke about the foot bath by the pool and his images show a purple slime like liquid as this is how he remembers it however after researching and looking into these details he found out the water was in fact brown and not a vibrant purple showing how his mind had changed the way he perceived this.

Not only is this image inspired by a false memory, he also created it using AI (artificial intelligence). Using AI allowed him to create this strange image and he just kept playing with it until he thought it correctly represented his memory. The final results of the images try to evoke the odd, fantastical memories created during childhood.

Definitions:

Nostalgia –  a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.

Sentimentality – exaggerated and self-indulgent tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.

The word nostalgia originates from the Greek language and translates to a sentimental yearning for the past. It can evoke feelings of pleasure or sadness and can be triggered by many things, such as music, movies, places, or people. Nostalgia can have positive effects on mood, social connectedness, self-esteem, and meaning in life.

Nostalgia can be something people find cosy and comforting, however it can also be an illusion. Sometimes when we think about the past, we get caught up on the good of that particular event/time in our life and forget about the bad memories that also occured. This means that we are looking at the past through ‘rose tinted glasses’ rather than the accurate memory. This creates the illusion that the past was beautiful while the present is troublesome and future will be worse whereas this is not accurate its just the

Moodboard:

These images represent what I think nostalgia is including images of people, places and captured memories.

Lighting techniques

For lighting techniques I did lots of experimenting in the studio to try and replicate different types of lighting for example Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting and playing around with silhouettes. Most of these images were successful however the silhouette images weren’t as successful as I’d hoped as I think our light source wasn’t sufficient for the amount of light required to make a sharp silhouette.

Double exposure

When looking at double exposure I discovered that there are two techniques that can be used to create this unique style of image. This includes changing the setting on the camera to allow multiple shots that then get layered together, or using photoshop to layer images and changing the opacity of them until you get the desired effect.

In my opinion, I think these images I produced turned out to be very successful and I really like this style of image and enjoyed learning how to set the camera up to take photos like this.

Environmental portraits

For the environmental portrait project I tried to capture people in their natural environment so took my camera around with me and for some images shot my friends doing their everyday things such as messing around with friends outside, sitting around a table at one of my friends houses and around school.

For other images I used other people, for example, my parents. I attempted to shoot them doing their jobs/hobbies such as my mum, on the left, is a flower farmer so I decided it would be appropriate to shoot in her polytunnel as that’s where she spends a lot of her time. For my dad, on the right, he spends a lot of his time in his log shed cutting up wood so I decided to get some images of him here as I think both of these settings show aspects of the persons personality and tells you a bit about them. For this reason, I think these images are very successful outcomes as they enable you to learn about the person being photographed and learn their story.

Binary opposites

I decided to look at binary opposites for part of the femininity vs masculinity project and produced some images that use the binary opposites of:

Boy/Girl and Black/White

For the Black/White opposition I not only edited the image to be monochrome but also made the girl in the image to wear white and the boy to wear black so that the opposition was obvious and to make a clear contrast between the two people.

Inspired shoots

For my inspired shoot I chose to look at the artist Clare Rae. Her weird style of images caught my attention because of the awkward positions she captures and so I thought it would be interesting to try and create some images inspired by this.

For these images, I took most of them in the studio and used a chair as a prop to climb on and experiment with strange ways of standing and posing. Then after that we decided to take some shots on a staircase as Clare Rae has some with a similar setting.

Femininity

For my Masculinity and Femininity project I decided to create documentary style images inspired by Justine Kurland’s book however I decided to do this around the girls in my friend group. I ensured these images gave the authentic documentary style feeling by brining my camera with me whenever I went out and capturing genuine moments without staging it. This enabled me to capture genuine emotions and create a genuine feeling of fun and friendship.

Summary

Overall I think this project was very successful as I produced some really effective outcomes. My favourite part of this topic was looking at ‘Girl pictures’ by Justine Kurland as I really like her style of her work and I enjoyed shooting + editing the inspired images. I also enjoyed playing with aspects such as double exposure as I found it interesting to experiment with the cameras and use components I hadn’t used before to create some really interesting final outcomes.

These virtual galleries display some of my best outcomes from this project: