Digital photography and the question of realism

Abstract

Throughout the course of history, we have come to trust the photograph more than any other kind of image as faithfully documenting the reality of the material world. We have relied on it to describe places, to prove things existed, and to recall the memorable. This confidence we have warranted in photographs, however, seems to be irrecoverably shattered by the emergence of new digital technologies. The rapid changes brought to contemporary image culture have generated much alarm, speculation and revisionism among contemporary thinkers about the nature of the photographic image. Have photographs ultimately suffered a loss due to their present uncertain connection to reality or have they conversely been granted richness? This article attempts to trace the origin of our unequivocal faith in images by taking a closer look at the very qualities that compose the traditional photograph, as we have known it. It further investigates the concern over the ‘loss of the real’ by looking at the unique properties of emerging digital photography and its consequent use in media culture. Finally, it aims to reaffirm photography's place in postmodernist image culture and attempts to suggest that a more sophisticated, discerning, less naïve stance is in order, if we are to appreciate our prospective encounters with the contemporary image.

Keywords:

• digital photography
• realism
• traditional photograph
• snapshot
• simulation