Apogee Photo Magazine

Fantasy, Abstraction and Realism in the Visual Arts
Part 2 - Photography and Digital Imaging


by Alan R. Krauss


How do the roles of photo-chemical imaging (conventional photography), digital imaging, and painting compare? In the first part of our discussion, we looked at the development of abstract painting and suggested it can convey a fundamentally more complete representation of the subject than we would see in a literally correct picture--such as one recorded by a camera lens. We borrowed Paul Klee's summary of the goal of 20th century art as "making visible the unseen rather than merely reflecting that which is already visible."

Photography: a Window on Reality

Then what are the uses of photography? Naturally enough, the camera was recognized very early as an excellent means of recording "reality." Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and others were members of the "f/64" group, so named because this lens aperture provides the greatest depth of field and consequently gives detailed, realistic images with as little limitation by the laws of optics as possible. In the words of Edward Weston (a):

"I start with no preconceived idea -- discovery excites me to focus -- then discovery through the lens -- final form of presentation seen on the ground glass, the finished print pre-visioned complete in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure -- the shutter's release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation -- the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all that I saw and felt through my camera."

Of course, these photographers, by their selection of subject matter, composition and lighting, were already imposing their perception on the viewers. For example, Brassai and Henri Cartier-Bresson present what at first appear to be candid, almost random street scenes of Paris in the 1920's and 30's. However, their selection of the "decisive moment" of exposure reveals the photographer's viewpoint. In addition, superficially, Diane Arbus and Sally Mann share only "picture albums" of friends and family, but in fact they offer their own vision of reality in their selection of subject matter, composition and lighting. As Edward Weston describes the process (b):

"My work has vitality because I have helped, done my part in revealing to others the living world about them, showing to them what their own unseeing eyes have missed..."

During the Depression of the 1930's, a number of photographers were employed by the Federal government for the purpose of producing photo-essays documenting conditions among the farmers, migrant workers and urban poor. The photos taken for the farm administration by Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, and Dorothea Lange introduced social commentary as a significant aspect of photography. Other photographers have followed the photo-essay tradition, recording powerful images of the world around us. However, it should be noted that many of these photographers choose deliberately shocking subjects such as circus freaks, prostitutes and drug users for their subject matter, thereby presenting a factually correct but socially limited view.

Reality with an Attitude

In the studio, a photographer can exert almost total control over his subject matter. For example, photographers such as Joel Peter Witkin and Ralph Gibson create their own, sometimes bizarre reality. By presentation and choice of subject matter, Helmut Newton presents a stylish, compelling perversion and sense of debauchery in his fashion photos. Even in portrait photography, a presumed bastion of realistic imaging, the photographer can--by choice of background, composition, and lighting--manipulate the appearance of the subject. Consider the combination of art and photojournalism in Arnold Newman's photograph of industrialist Arndt Krupp. By photographing Krupp with one of his factories in the background, Newman presents Krupp as a leader of modern industry. However, by selecting strong, very low side lighting, Newman also portrays Krupp as a monster, directly linked to the atrocities of slave labor and production of poison gas during the Nazi era in Germany. (As an historical footnote, Krupp relinquished control of Krupp Industries in 1967, and the company became a publicly held corporation in 1968.)

The landscapes, nudes and vegetable studies of Edward Weston (c) represent pure artistic expression of form and texture and clearly constitute art by any definition. Weston, Bill Brandt, Lucien Clergue, Ruth Bernhard, Imogen Cunningham, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Farber and others use the human body as a means of creating abstract shapes which echo forms found in nature--a technique similar to that used by painters of the 17th-19th centuries.

Photographers such as Jerry Uelsmann, Wynn Bullock, Peter Tytla, and Scott Mutter have for years been creating photo-montages which bear only slight resemblance to "reality." In the case of Bullock's montages, the images are striking, but don't strain one's credibility. Tytla uses his montages in a humorous way, whereas Uelsmann and Mutter create a reality in which the rules differ drastically from everyday experience--reminiscent of the images created by surrealist painters.

With the advent of digital imaging, the effectiveness with which photographic elements can be controlled, combined, and modified has been raised to a level previously unachievable. Depending on the photographer's intent, this capability can be used either to capture the subject with greater fidelity (Joel Meyerowitz and Joseph Holmes) or to create a new image which expresses the essence of the photographer's concept (Jerry Uelsmann, Scott Mutter and Ron Brown). Either goal is legitimate. The photographer's integrity must distinguish between fraud and valid artistic expression.

Is Digital Imaging Photography, Painting, or Both?

Which brings us to the question, is digital imaging photography, painting, or both? Quickly preview Figures 1-4 (Click here to see Figures 1-4). Do you know without reading further which are the "originals" and which are digitally modified?

Both figures 1a, "Red Rock Crossing" and 1b, "After the Rain" are digital modifications, derived from a single image taken at Red Rock Crossing, a well-known scenic attraction near Sedona, Arizona. A storm was just clearing, exposing the top of the rock formation to bright sunlight while the sky remained dark. The midground was in shadow, accentuated by the contrast of large white birch trees. The river, however, was a mere trickle of water in a desert of white stones that led off to the lower left, producing a line which had little compositional relation to the rest of the picture. The original image did not convey an effective representation of the clearing storm.

Although neither Figure 1a or 1b represents the literal reality of the scene, the two images make effective artistic statements--both quite different. Figure 1a, by the enhancement and rerouting of the river, offers an image of a desert brought to life by the rain, with plants blooming and rivers rushing with water. This image expresses the general feeling associated with the ending of two days of nearly continuous rainfall. Figure 1a, therefore, is more effective in the message it conveys than the literally accurate original.

Figure 1b, "After the Rain" is based on Figure 1a, but the presence of the nude woman immediately tells us we aren't looking at a tourist attraction! This image uses elements of reality to produce a fantasy, similar conceptually to the environments portrayed by the Art Nouveau painters such as Maxfield Parrish, or the Surrealist painters (although the environment of "After the Rain" is decidedly not hostile). Clearly, we are looking at a place and time unlike the 9-5 workday routine. The woman is not bathing or washing clothes, but is examining her reflection as if for the first time:

"After the rain, the rivers rush and the desert blooms.
A young woman sees her reflection in the still water.
Who is that pretty creature, she asks?"
(From the Worlds of Nowhen © 1996 by Alan R. Krauss)

Figure 2a, "By the Wall," is similar in composition, texture and intent to Figure 2b, "Dawn." In both cases, the focus is on the geometry of the human form and the contrast in texture between skin and rock. "By the Wall" is digitally manipulated, but only to the extent normally used in conventional printing, i.e. for contrast control and in burning and dodging. Figure 2b, however, is a composite image. The model was photographed in the studio and added to the view of Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona. Also, several highlight areas in the background were burned out in the original image and had to be digitally reconstructed from other portions of the canyon wall. Is the resulting image of Fig. 2b any less effective than Fig. 2a?

Fig 3b, "Enchanted Garden," is another composite image, based primarily on Figure 3a, which is a view of Buckingham Palace as seen from a London park. The pond, palace and moss-covered trees suggested enchantment even though the foreground was filled with people, the tree on the left was barren, and the sky was gray. By extending the pool and adding the moss-covered foreground rocks and the couple in the rowboat harvesting lily pads, both the composition and the atmosphere of fantasy were strengthened. The replacement of the gray by a blue sky with wispy clouds, plus the addition of blossoms to the barren tree completed the scene.

It may be interesting to compare this image, which admittedly has some "painterly" aspects, with Pejman's paintings "Winding Terrace" or "Apollo and Daphne". Pejman's works are fictional and idealized conceptions of places he has visited, depicted as they inspired him during his visit. Figure 3a is the literal rendition of the image as seen by the camera, and 3b is an interpretation based on elements perceived by the photographer. Both Pejman's paintings and "Enchanted Garden" meet Paul Klee's goal of "making visible the unseen..."

Figures 4a and 4b take us to Teotihuacan, Mexico--the location of the "City of the Dead," an area which flourished from 200 B. C. to 800 A. D. as the religious, administrative and cultural center of Central America. The 500,000 permanent residents were supplemented annually by an equal number of pilgrims, each one competing for the privilege of having his still-beating heart torn from his chest as an offering to the Sun god. Only the strongest and most beautiful were considered appropriate sacrificial subjects. Even so, more people were killed at the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon than in all of the extermination camps of the Nazis. The area was eventually abandoned and forgotten for approximately 1000 years until 20th century farmers began turning up an exceptionally large number of artifacts as they ploughed their fields.

The area today is only partly reconstructed and is almost always crawling with tourists, as shown in Figure 4a. Figure 4b, "Death of the Priestess" is an historically inaccurate reconstruction of the entrance to the palace of Quetzalpalpolotl. The two pyramids are actually two different views of the Pyramid of the Sun, which is located further along the Street of the Dead and not visible from the Palace of Quetzalpalpolotl. In this reconstruction, one of the chosen victims is already lying on the executioner's block, a bloody sword at her side, while another (priestess? victim? executioner? guardian?) stands in the shadows, refusing to look at the body of the one "fortunate" enough to be chosen as a sacrifice. Although the person standing does not look at the victim, she does not run away, but rather appears transfixed in a state of --what? Horror? Envy of the honor bestowed on the sacrificial victim? Dread for her own fate? Is this image, with its avowed historical inaccuracies, any less an artistically valid rendition than David's certainly inaccurate painting of "Leonides at Thermopylae" seen in Part 1 of this article?

Regardless of whether or not digital imaging is considered "true photography," the examples illustrate that digital imaging is capable of meeting Klee's definition of art. In its capabilities, it represents a melding of photography and painting in a form which may be photographic in appearance. Digital imaging may be used in a manner which blurs the distinction between photography and painting. Photographers will have to either adopt digital imaging methods as an integral part of their medium, or redefine the goals of their art form, as did painters when confronted with the development of photography. In all likelihood, photography will split into two camps, representing those who regard it primarily as a recording medium and those who regard it primarily as a means of artistic expression.

References:

Edward Weston (a) The Flame of Recognition, Nancy Newhall ed. from The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Aperture (1965) NY p. 41;
(b) Ibid p. 39;
(c) http://www.artsmia.org/

Joseph Holmes, Photo-Electronic Imaging 39 No. 7 (1996) p. 24

Ron Brown http://www.xmission.com/~photofx
Photo-Electronic Imaging 39 No. 7 (1996) p. 6

Pejman - Romantic Realism Suite
http://www.world-wide-art.com/

Many thanks to Nicolas Pioch and The WebMuseum for their generous help in putting this article together.

Also we would like to thank David Wilfong at World Wide Art for his generosity.

About the author:

Alan Krauss has been a part-time photographer since the 1960's, and a full-time research scientist since receiving a Ph.D. in solid state physics from Purdue University in 1974. Dr. Krauss is currently head of the Thin Film Growth and Characterization Group in the Materials Science and Chemistry Divisions at Argonne National Laboratory, and is an adjunct Professor of Materials Science at the University of Wisconsin. Krauss is photographically largely self-taught although he has attended courses at the Maine Photographic Workshop and the Midwest Photographic Workshop where he has lectured on the use of digital imaging methods in figure photography, and has studied with the French photographer Lucien Clergue in Mexico. He has found that the computer-related aspects of his scientific research have provided new routes of artistic expression in his photographic work, and is an ardent advocate of digital imaging as an indispensable tool for the visual artist. He and his wife, Julie founded Wind Ridge Studios in Naperville, IL in 1995.