PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL

Abstract

Photography in the digitally created or digitized reality is an everyday activity that is rarely discussed in the context of photographic debates. This refers to practices such as in-game photography or, simpler yet, the screenshot. The paper focuses on their history, the specific status and materiality of these images of screens. Their (hi)story begins with screen image photography of measured data on cathode ray tubes and the photographic capture of x-ray screens. Screenshots and in-game photography can be seen throughout this context but they are cameraless and can therefore be understood and discussed within a long history of experimental photographic practices. Should we speak here at all of photography? If so, what is their photographic specificity? Which image of reality do they provide us?

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See e.g. Doug Rickard’s “A New American Picture” (2011) and Viktoria Binschtok’s “World of Pairs” (2012). Both projects work with images from Google Street View.

2 See e.g. the work of Stephen Shore, Lars Tunbjörk, William Eggleston, Timm Rautert, and, recently, Wolfgang Tillmans. These images bring up yet another theme, the picture in picture or Mise en Abyme, which cannot be discussed further here.

3 See Batchen, Emanations.

4 Ibid., 47.

5 Ibid., 47.

6 Ibid., 9.

7 According to this definition, screen image also refers to the projections on the screen of a large-format camera, background projections, etc.

8 Manuel Dias de Abreu (January 4, 1894–January 30, 1962). At that time, the technique was called Abreugraphie. See “Chest photofluorography.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chest_photofluorography

9 Results were examined with a magnifying glass.

10 In the middle of the 1930s, Robert Janker also worked on the development of screen image photography in Bonn. He started using the process in the mid-1920s, at first for the production of educational films on x-ray, that showed the sequence of movements in the body. See Braun and Michels, “Die Tuberkulose auf dem Schirm.”

11 It would be instructive to consider the dispositif of x-ray photography as a necessary transparent representation. The medium’s transparency plays a decisive role.

12 See Schwab, Hochspannungsmesstechnik, 8.

13 The transparency of a monitor is a curious thing, because it is actually opaque. The alleged inspection of the data — the representations of the interface — cannot be compared with the transparency of the matt screen of a camera or of an x-ray screen. Here, nothing is seen through; there is only representation.

14 Other systems of recording should be mentioned here — especially those developed by Fairchild, Steinheil, Kodak, Tektronix, and Polaroid — for creating instant images, slides, videos, and prints from illuminated screens in analog processes.

15 For this use, polaroid even developed a film, spectra, whose image size of 9.2×7.3 better corresponds to the 4×3 aspect ratio of CRT screens.

16 Giddings, “Drawing without Light,” 50–51.

17 See Talbot, The Pencil of Nature.

18 Frizot, Neue Geschichte der Fotografie, 21.

19 Depending on the technology, the refresh rate is somewhere between 50 and 1000 hz.

20 Consider the relevant works of Margarete Pratschke, especially Windows als Tableau.

21 Graphical User Interface.

22 Hertzfeld, Revolution in the Valley, 89–97.

23 Allen, “Representing Computer-Aided Design.”

24 Ibid., 656. Steve Shapin describes the involvement of third-parties as “technology of virtual witnessing” (Shapin, “Pump and Circumstance”).

25 See Pratschke, “Die Architektur digitaler Bildlichkeit.”

26 For a considerable time, it has also been possible to save actively selected areas of a screen’s status.

27 See Krunoslav S. Kopp, “Bundeskanzlerin tritt zurück: Beweiswert von Screenshots” (2011). https://digitalrecht.net/2011/06/bundeskanzlerin-tritt-zuruck-beweiswert-von-screenshots/

28 Again and again, Margarete Pratschke has referred to the connection of this type of imagery with an image production from (early) modernity (see Pratschke, “Interaktion,” 78 ff.).

29 Though this was not always the case, the settings of today’s operating systems can be adjusted to determine whether the cursor is present in the screenshot or not.

30 One exception is the smartphone, whose interface only ever makes one window (one application) visible.

31 Shapin, “Pump and Circumstances,” 481.

32 See Moyer, “Politicians, Take Note.”

33 See Lowood, “High-performance Play.”

34 See Wehn, “Machinima.”

35 See Manovich, “Die Paradoxien der digitalen Fotografie,” 64.

36 Schröter, “Virtuelle Kamera.”

37 See Flückiger, “Zur Konjunktur der analogen Störung”; Karner, Assessing the Realism; and Rautzenberg, “Exzessive Bildlichkeit.”

38 Poremba, “Point and Shoot,” 49.

39 Gerling, “Be a Hero.”

40 An incomplete list of the categories of screenshot could look like the following: recipes, instructions/tutorials, topographical notes, quick exports from applications (towards understanding/agreement), agreements, screenshot as input, error messages/debugging, settings in the reservation system, (saving settings), signatures/references/library, visual citation/scientific documentation, image excerpts, film clips/YouTube/vimeo, mistakes, videochat/documentation of long-distance relationships, visual gag, confirmation/legal protection, wish list, scoreline, success, glitch, orchestration, curation.

The functions are: visual note, help with memory or communication, archiving, separation of private/professional, collecting ideas, inspirations, dealing with access privileges.

41 Rautzenberg, “Wirklichkeit,” 121.

42 Siegel, “Fotografische Detailbetrachtung.”

43 Salen and Zimmerman, Rules of Play, 305.

44 Möring and de Mutiis (“Photography in Computer Games”) describe the various categories of photography in computer games as follows: “(a) Simulated photography as central to the gameplay condition, (b) additional photo-mode–suspended gameplay condition, (c) artistic screenshot-ing, (d) narrated photography.”

45 Photo-modes, in which the perspectives can be freely chosen, are exceptions.

46 See Neitzel, “Point of View und Point of Action.”

47 See Fuchs, “Ruinensehnsucht.”

48 Xynthantion, “Native Gangs of Los Santos.”

49 See Bittanti, “Game Art.”

50 See e.g. Cory Arcangel, Super Mario Clouds, 2002. Description of the work on Cory Arcangel’s Official Portfolio Website and Portal, accessed November 1, 2017, http://www.coryarcangel.com/things-i-made/2002-001-super-mario-clouds

51 In any case, there are borderline cases like a modification (MOD) of the game Grand Theft Auto 4, to allow for taking selfies in the game. The game’s creators later implemented this function into the game.

52 Paillé, “CROSSROAD OF REALITIES.”

53 The name is a reference to American landscape photographer Ansel Adams.

54 Burnes, “NVIDIA Ansel Available Now.”

55 This becomes clear when you look at the advertising video of Share Factory on Playstation 4, which is set up for processing game photography and video. Its motto: “Share your greatest moments, your way.” “SHAREfactory™ on PS4 | #4ThePlayers.”

56 This is already predictable in some of the manufacturer’s restrictions. For example, it is impossible, for licensing reasons, to take screenshots from an Apple DVD player with the Apple operating system.

57 See Batchen, Emanations.

58 For the difference between surface und interface, see Hookway, Interface, 4.

59 See Meier, “Die Simulation von Fotografie.”

60 For example, in Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games 2013), The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios 2011), and Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games 2010)

61 The artist Kent Sheely shows this very clearly by reenacting an image by Robert Capa (D-Day, 1944) of the landing of Allied troops in Normandy in the game World War II redux (2009). See Möring and de Mutiis, “Photography in Computer Games.”. The image can be seen on: http://www.kentsheely.com/world-war-ii-redux

62 See Lee, “Tr@n$form3r$: The Premake.”

63 See Steyerl, “In Defense of the Poor Image.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Winfried Gerling

Winfried Gerling is Professor for Concepts and Aesthetics of New Media in European Media Studies, at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. His research focuses on the theory and practice of photography, digital aesthetics and media environments.