For this final image, I edited it using Lightroom and I decreased the saturation for all of the colours except for red. This left the image black and white, apart from the parts which were red. I then used the adjustment brush tool in Lightroom to paint the remaining unwanted coloured areas to make them also black and white. This left the image black and white, with the red backpack still the same colour as I expected.
For this particular image, I experimented using two different editing techniques. Firstly, I chose a photo where the main subjects were focused, and edited the photo using Adobe Photoshop. I selected both of the main subjects and added the filter ‘motion blur’ to make it looks as though they were moving. I then edited the image using Lightroom so that the man’s shorts was the only colour left in the image. To do this, I decreased the saturation for all of the colours apart from yellow and orange, and used the adjustment brush to paint the unwanted coloured areas black and white.
Finally, I cropped the image to make it squared to focus on the main elements of the image.
Evaluation:
In St. Malo, I focused on taking images on either the French aspect of architecture or people living an ordinary life as I think they go really well together because they all hold a certain spontaneity. I found that my photographs linked well to the topic and I think all of my edits were very successful as I experimented with new editing techniques.
Henri Cartier Bresson was a humanist photographer, who lived from 1908 – 2004 in France with a loving wealthy family. He always had a passion for the arts since being introduced from a young age and began with drawing and painting as a child. When he was introduced to photography he began taking his camera everywhere with him almost like an extra limb as it helped him interact with the world. Photography inspired him to travel the world to explore the cultures of other countries and ended up travelling Africa and Europe. He believed that photography was not just about photos but the essence of existence throughout the world.
Cartier – Bresson photographed candid society with a blind understanding that ordinary people have ordinary lives wanting to capture that through photos. His camera was like an extension of his eye and he used the analogy of ‘its like hunting but we don’t kill’ to explain the idea that this was his physical pleasure. This analogy shows that through the idea of hunting he was patient and precise with everything that led up to his photos due to the technology not being advanced, and the specific moments needed. Bresson was also present at a lot of historical events through his lifetime and also wanted to capture the realism and naturalistic aspect that these events may have.
The reason for the philosophy behind his photo ‘ Gare Saint-Lazare’ was the idea that ” there is never not a decisive moment “. Therefore any moment could be a photo, and he made this shown with every piece of work he produced.
The photo of ‘Gare Saint- Lazare’ was taken in Paris in the 1930’s at the station of St Lazare. In this photo shapes and shadows are extremely important to show all kinds of composition.
leading lines usually start off the frame and usually guides the eye to follow the main focus which in this case is the Jumping man. The leading lines in this photo is the fence and the reflection which give a set of parallel lines that help follow this jumping man.
For photos like this, there needs to be a lot of balance in the photo to almost level it out and the was that this was done in this particular photo was the view of the large clock tower in the background which balances with the reflection of the jumping man in the water. This shows almost a feel of Ying and Yang as the difference of the reality of the clock tower and the intriguing thought of the reflection being almost an alternate place clash so well together.
There is a lot of negative space in this photo too, like the white sky space above the landscape and the empty ground space seen underneath the reflection of the jumping man. This helps the main focus of the photo ( the jumping man ) to stay in focus all throughout.
The symbolism of the man jumping in the photo is also a really nice touch to this photo because again it almost feels like an alternative world through something like a looking glass foreshadowing the photo within itself almost giving a unnatural feeling throughout.
His use of rule of thirds is very effective as the use of having the main focus of the man being in the middle right third almost helps the eyes of viewers follow through his moment in the photo, almost helping us imagine the movement that would be happening.
Examples of his work –
As you can see, all his photos show the natural world without filter and the candid society that people live in. The photos have been taken at almost the perfect time showing the naturality of everyone in shot and I think that that that is a very powerful idea.
The camera and lens –
Henri Cartier – Bresson was known for using a Leica rangefinder with a 50mm lens. These cameras were compact, reliable and their design was quite small and discreet, making it very inconspicuous. This allowed him to use a quick and unobtrusive shooting style, which is essential for street photography.
He loved how stealthy the camera was, the shutter was quiet, making capturing moments easy to do without attracting attention to himself and therefor allowing moments to unfold naturally before him. This silent lens was crucial for someone who believed in capturing authentic unstaged moments.
He preferred the 50mm lens because it offers a field of view close to the human eye, ensuring he captured images that felt natural and immersive to the viewer.
ESSAY: Photography and Truth: Can a photograph lie? DEADLINE: Mon 4 Nov
Can a photograph lie?
Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936
Are all photographs reliable?
Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945
A photograph is a certain delivery of facts?
Jeff Wall, Mimic, 1982
Claims of truth that most people take for granted?
Tom Hunter, Woman Reading a Possession Order, 1997, after Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window, 1647-49
You often hear a photographer saying: ‘the camera was there and recorded what I saw’.
A common phrase is to ‘shed light on a situation’ meaning to find out the truth.
‘A picture tells a 1000 words‘, is another aphorism that imply images are more reliable.
Picasso famously said: ‘We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth.’
Magritte’s painting La Trahison des Images in which he painted a picture of a pipe with the words ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (This is not a pipe) goes some way towards an explanation.
Documentary photography’s central moral associations are:
depicting truth
recording life as it is
camera as a witness.
The photograph as evidence
Since its ‘invention’ in the 1830s, photographs have been used as sources of evidence. The direct (indexical) relationship between the sun’s rays and the resulting image makes photographs seem reliable as sources of information. No wonder that photography was enthusiastically embraced by organisations like the police who began to use photographs as sources of legal proof. And yet, from the beginning, artists working with photography began to create images which relied on the manipulation of their photographs using techniques like combination printing, undermining their evidential status. Photographs are very persuasive since they look so much like the things photographed. As Susan Sontag has pointed out, when we hear about something happening but doubt its occurrence, we tend to believe it to be true when shown a photograph of it. However, she also describes the way that photographs are peculiar in the type of evidence they provide:
The photographer was thought to be an acute but non-interfering observer – a scribe, not a poet. But as people quickly discovered that nobody takes the same picture of the same thing, the supposition that cameras furnish an impersonal, objective image yielded to the fact that photographs are evidence not only of what’s there but of what an individual sees, not just a record but an evaluation of the world. It became clear that there was not just a simple activity called seeing (recorded by, aided by cameras) but ‘photographic seeing’, which was both a new way for people to see and a new activity for them to perform. – Susan Sontag from On Photography
Some initial questions:
What can photographs be evidence of?
How many types of photographic evidence can you list?
Which of your official documents include a photograph of you?
Why are photographs considered, in some legal circumstances, to be a reliable source of evidence?
How reliable is your Instagram feed or family photo album as a record of your life?
The exhibition featured a wide range of photographs from fields such as medicine, conflict, engineering, astronomy and crime. Originally used as evidence of something, torn from their original context and hung on a gallery wall, the photographs could be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities and artistry.
This was further emphasised by the exhibition hang which drew attention to the formal similarities between some of the photographs:
A limited edition of 200 catalogues were produced to mark the show, again conferring on the photographs the status of art object:
Part of the fascination with all photography is that the medium is firmly grounded in the documentary tradition. It has been used as a record of crime scenes, zoological specimens, lunar and space exploration, phrenology, fashion and importantly, art and science. It has been used as ‘proof’ of simple things such as family holidays and equally of atrocities taking place on the global stage. Any contemporary artist using photography has to accept the evidential language embedded in the medium. — Michael Hoppen Gallery website
Do you know what London really looks like? Take our quiz and see if AI can fool you
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TASKS: Produce a number of blog posts that show evidence of the following
Mon-Tue: ESSAY > Write a 1000-1500 word comparative essay on photography’s association with truth using both historical and contemporary images as examples.
The essay question (hypothesis), Photography and Truth: Can a photography lie? is designed to explore the idea of photographs as forms of evidence. Of course this is relevant to all photographs. To what extent can any photograph be relied upon to tell us the truth? With new technology, such as generative AI that produce content from images and texts that already exist on the internet, it also raises questions about originality, appropriation and authorship. These issues are central to contemporary artistic and photographic practice and students should be alert to them. Is the photographer always the one who presses the shutter? Does it matter?
DEADLINE: Wed 3 July
Follow these instructions:
Select two images that have manipulated truth, one historical using camera technology, one contemporary using AI technology as examples to use in your essay
Research history, theory and context of both images thoroughly and make notes.
Read several sources (both online and on paper) to acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding
Provide a critical perspective by referencing different points of view from sources.
Select at least 2 quotes per image from sources you have read that is relevant to your essay question.
Use Harvard System of Referencing and provide a bibliography
Use key terminology specific to art and photography from the matrix/ sheet below.
Essay plan – use as a guideline
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.
Paragraph 1 (250-500 words): Describe how photography in the past (before the digital age) could be manipulated, both in-camera and in the darkroom (eg. reflect on Pictorialism’s use of chemicals and scratching surfaces in distorting images and earlier masking/ collaging technique sin the darkroom.) Provide an example of an image (see case studies below) from history of photography where the truth was distorted. Describe circumstances, context, different points of view and new discoveries or theories around the origin or meaning of your chosen image. Use either direct quote, paraphrasing or summary from sources and comment (for or against). Make sure you provide your own interpretation of the image too.
Paragraph 2 (250 -500 words): Describe how photography now since the digital age has been altering the truth from faking images in-camera to using image manipulation software, such as Photoshop. Provide an example of an image (see case studies below) produced using artificial intelligence that looks ‘real’, but are in fact a digital construct. Provide analysis of how generative AI such as DreamStudio, Midjourney or DALL E 2 has increased our ability to create new images that has no relationship with either photography or the truth. Use same formula as above and use either direct quote, paraphrasing or summary from sources and comment (for or against). Make sure you provide your own interpretation of the image too.
Conclusion (250 words): Refer back to the essay question and write a conclusion where you summarise in your own words both similarities and differences between your two image examples. For example, compare and contrast how historical images in the past and digital images made today, using new technology such as AI, have altered reality and distorted truth. Conclude with a statement on how you envisage the future of photography and AI image-making might change our perception of reality, and attitude towards truth.
Bibliography: List all the sources that you have identified in alphabetical order. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.
Quotes and referencing: You MUST reference some of the sources that you have used either by incorporating direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, or historical fact.
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
CASE STUDIES
Explore case studies where images have ‘lied’ and truth has been manipulated, distorted, staged or altered. Choose two images – one historical and one contemporary – for your essay from case studies listed below that questions the notion of truth regarding the photographic image and its relationship with reality and explain why.
Case Study 1: Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, April 23, 1855
Case Study 2: Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936
Vu magazine, Sept. 23, 1936. Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War coverage with the “Falling Soldier” photograph
Case Study 3: Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945
Joe Rosenthal’s original caption: “Atop 550-foot Suribachi Yama, the volcano at the southwest tip of Iwo Jima, Marines of the Second Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Division, hoist the Stars and Stripes, signalling the capture of this key position.”
Case Study 4: Steve McCurry, Taj Mahal and train in Agra, 1983.
The images of renowned photographer Steve McCurry, who made the famous and iconic image of an Afghan girl for a front cover of National Geography has recently been criticized for making ‘too perfect pictures’ which not only are boring but reinforces a particular idea or stereotype of the exotic other.
Read this article by Teju Cole in the New York Times Magazine which compares McCurry’s representation of India with a native photographer, Raghubir Singh who worked from the late ’60s until his untimely death in 1999, traveling all over India to create a series of powerful books about his homeland.
Read this artcicle on Petapixel in In defense of Steve McCurry’s images
What is your view? Back it up with references to articles read and include quotes for or against.
Reference to Coldplay’s new video also highlight the idea of cultural appropriation that harks back to Britain’s colonial rule and exploitation of the Orient.
Case Study 5 > Jeff Wall, Approach, 2014.
Jeff Wall is a Canadian artists known for his large scale tableaux image presented in light-boxes. Today, most of his images resemble reportage and, as such, are likely to incense his detractors, who claim he’s not a “true” photographer. His most contentious new work, called Approach, shows a homeless woman standing by a makeshift cardboard shelter in which we spy the foot of what could be a sleeping vagrant. Wall tells me it was shot under an actual freeway where the homeless congregate and that “it took a month to make, working hands-on” – but he won’t divulge just how staged it is. Is this an actual homeless woman, or an actor? Is the shelter real, or was it built by Wall’s team of assistants to resemble one?
Re-creating images from memory is crucial to Wall’s practice – perhaps because it flies in the face of the tradition of photography as an act of instant witnessing.
“Something lingers in me until I have to remake it from memory to capture why it fascinates me,” he says. “Not photographing gives me imaginative freedom that is crucial to the making of art. That, in fact, is what art is about – the freedom to do what we want.”
In terms of truth or communicating an idea that make references to a real social problem such as homelessness, does it matter if the image is staged or not? Where does authenticity come into the picture?
Jeff Wall exhibition with his trademark images presented in lightboxes.
Case Study 6 > Boris Eldagsen. The Electrician, from the series PSEUDOMNESIA, 2022. Credit: Boris Eldagsen/Co-created with DALLE2/Courtesy of Photo Edition Berlin.
AI-generated image wins photography award, but artist turns it down
Artist wins photo award with AI generated image, sparking debate | DW News
Berlin-based photographer Boris Eldagsen rejected the recognition from Sony World Photography Awards, saying that artificial intelligence (AI) images and photography should not compete with each other in similar contests. In a statement published on his website, Erdagsen said that he applied to the competition “as a cheeky monkey” to find out if such events are prepared to handle AI-generated content. The photographer also urged for debate on the role of AI in photography. “We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not,” wrote Eldagsen.
Read Boris Eldgasen’s own comments om his website here, where you will also find hyperlinks to many articles and interviews given about the image and his refusal to accept the Sony World Photography Awards 2023.
Boris Eldagsen has accused the Sony World Photograph Awards of failing to distinguish between a photograph and a DALL-E 2-created image, while the organisers condemn a ‘deliberate attempt at misleading us’
The German artist caused uproar this week when he revealed the shot that won a prestigious award wasn’t what it seemed. But, he insists, AI isn’t about sidelining humans – it’s about liberating artists
Boris Eldagsen submitted an artificial-intelligence-generated image to a photography contest as a “cheeky monkey” and sparked a debate about AI’s place in the art world
Artificial-intelligence-powered image-generating systems are making fake photographs so hard to detect that we need AI to catch them.
Case Study 7: David Fathi> False image generated by AI using Midjourney showing Emmanuel Macron in contact with police officers and taking to the streets to protest against the retirement age reform in France.
‘Generative artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly advancing. Anyone can use image generation tools to create without needing specific technical or artistic skills. The images generated by these tools challenge the notions of work and creator, as if they were algorithmic ready-mades. Like Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, bottle rack or snow shovel, they are products of mechanization and automation (industrial for Duchamp, digital for these new creations) and displayed in an art gallery. The artist does not have to paint, photograph or sculpt; his choices and decisions shape the work. The algorithm draws from a huge database of images that mirror our world without replicating it accurately. The generated images look more and more realistic and close to reality but also act as a distorting mirror, exaggerating all the stereotypes and biases of our visual culture.
We are at a turning point where human production has not yet been contaminated by artificial production. However this will soon change as the tools themselves use their own creations as input. Gradually the feedback loop, an endless cycle where culture ceaselessly refers to itself, will come to dominate the database, risking getting stuck in nostalgia for the past and trapped in a closed , meta-stable, system. Duchamp’s ghost still haunts us, an unavoidable reference in the history of contemporary art, often quoted, copied or parodied by generations of artists that followed. He became an art cliché despite himself. Duchamp himself described his own art as “meta-irony” to describe his art – a form of critical distance holding its own questioning.
Artificial intelligence raises ethical, artistic and social questions that are only an acceleration of the same questions that have followed the inventions of printing, photography, computer or the internet. The growing automation only makes it harder to escape our current system and the “meta” has become a refuge. This constant self-reference, reflexivity, circularity of our art, our technologies, our culture is becoming a trap where the past’s ghosts still haunt our present thinking.’
Case Study 8: Philip Toledano > Trump as a poor man
Philip Toledano: (mrtoledano) For the final act of the trump series, let’s think about who donald trump would be if he didn’t have his fathers money. If he hadn’t had a gilded life of privilege handed to him. What if he was just Donny from Queens ? What would his life look like? What would he be doing ?
Philip Toledano: I’ve noticed a lot of work uses ai to recreate photography as it is now-some sort of reflection of reality -but what’s utterly intriguing is that AI has its own voice. For instance, this image of the two men fighting I would argue is much more interesting than the one I posted yesterday (can you see what’s different ?) because (metaphorically) I allowed ai to have a say -now this image asks more questions (which is ALWAYS a good thing in art)
READING > REFERENCES > SOURCES
Below are some background text on some of the topics of discussion, such as truth, ethics, realism, representation and genres of documentary photography and staged photography (tableaux). Reading a couple of these texts would provide you with the background knowledge and understanding that is required for you write a critical essay on the topic around photography and truth. It is your own responsibility to research relevant information and context around the two images that you have chosen from case studies above.
Documentary > Truth > Realism > Ethics > Representation
Artificial Intelligence > Ethics > Regulation > Media – current debates
In March, some prominent figures in tech signed a letter calling for artificial intelligence labs to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.” The letter, published by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit backed by Elon Musk, came just two weeks after OpenAI announced GPT-4, an even more powerful version of the technology that powers ChatGPT. In early tests and a company demo, GPT-4 was used to draft lawsuits, pass standardized exams and build a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.
Lets watch this interview on CNN with Dr Geoffrey Hinton who says ‘AI could kill humans and there might be no way of stopping it.’. The man often touted as the godfather of AI quit Google, citing concerns over the flood of misinformation, the possibility for AI to upend the job market, and the “existential risk” posed by the creation of a true digital intelligence. For more context read articles in The Guardian and NYT (New York Times) too
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
AI Principles
The Asilomar AI Principles, coordinated by The Future of Life Institute (FLI) and developed at the Beneficial AI 2017 conference, are one of the earliest and most influential sets of AI governance principles. Read all principles listed, especially those linked with Ethics and Values.
The University of Florida hosted a panel on ethics in artificial intelligence on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, with faculty members exploring the important role of ethics as scientists race toward increasingly sophisticated AI technologies. UF faculty members Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Duncan Purves, Tina Tallon and Sanethia Thomas participated in the online panel, which explored various topics related to the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, including algorithmic bias, ChatGPT and the social impact of AI on different communities.
Josh Kline on the unfolding disasters of climate change and AI
Artforum editor in chief David Velasco visits Josh Kline at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art to discuss “Project for a New American Century,” his first institutional survey in the US. Kline, whose work graces the cover of the April issue, reflects on his world-building art, the unfolding disasters of climate change and AI, and why he still sees the future as a place of hope. In the April issue: Colby Colby Chamberlain on the art of Josh Kline.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.
What is the concept of “The decisive moment”?
The concept of the decisive moment implies that in the constant flow of events, there are moments in which the arrangement of everything within the frame is perfect. These moments are always spontaneous, so a photographer must be ready to click right away.
Here I used AI to try and add some more details to my photos, I highlighted the spot I wanted to add more and typed in what I thought would look the best, for example I had a blank space to work with therefore I just added some different posters and a plant to fill the space.
Here, I used AI to add more details to my photo, this allowed me to add people, different objects and change the perspective of the photo. For example, the original photo is an alley way that has graffiti and no people, when I used AI I was able to add children to make it look like they were drawing the graffiti, I also added cans of spray paint on the side to make it look more believable and also adds more colour and details to my photograph. In the back of the photograph I added a person in the back to make the picture more full.
Here I did the same thing as the photo above, i added people and also changed some of the people in the background to make the photo look different, I tried to change some small details such as the bag on the lady sat on the bench. I also added a dog which I don’t really like but kept in to show the differences in the original photo and the edited photo.
Here, I added a different effect to the colour, I selected the area I wanted to change and pressed (CTRL U) this allowed me to add a brighter colour or a more faint colour. I wanted to make my photo to stand out therefore made the colours bright and bold, I kept selecting different areas in the photo to see what looked right and what looked wrong. I really like how this photo turned out as the photo looks really vivid.
For this experiment I tried to make one person stand out as you can see the green person is more bold than the other people. Here I had to duplicate the photo and then move one of the photos either to right or left.
The photos that were taken in St Malo were inspired by Henri-Cartier Bresson whose photography looked at “The Decisive moment” Where he world capture certain things that were about to happen like a child jumping over a puddle or someone drinking a coffee outside a café, his photos capture these unexpected moments by him waiting in anticipation for the exact right time. All of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photos are all in black and white and some have high levels of exposure to them making them brighter in some areas of the image and causing there to be a lot of shadow in other areas increasing the contrast between light and dark.
Contact Sheet
Edited images before and after
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Evaluation for edited images
All these photos are taken with the decisive moment in the image and trying to capture unexpected things. The images I took are a mix of architectural images and images with people which creates a good variety of images.
