Photography (part 2)

Qualities of Photographic Methods Continued…

We become familiar with light’s properties and manners through our eyes, which act as optics.  Optics are material instruments (such as mirrors and lenses) used to reflect, refract, and focus complexes of light so that they can be understood in particular ways.

Optics may be organic or inorganic, natural or man-made.  Spiders have simple eyes, which are designed to detect various intensities of light and no more.  Some nightlights have similar sensors that merely detect light intensity.  The sensor operates a switch to turn the nightlight on whenever the room becomes dark.  Such nightlights do not need the more sophisticated (and more expensive) optics of SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras, which in turn are simple compared to the optics of human eyes.

Complex eyes (such as you are using to read this text) are designed to detect motion, perceive form and space, and distinguish among wavelengths within a narrow range of the electromagnetic spectrum scientists call visible light.  Artists call this portion color.

Human eyes have been created to perform all these optical feats well, but are, by design, not the best at any one of them.  Nor is every human eye created equal.  But in every case, whatever one’s eyes take in his or her brain receives and processes.  It is the mind that deciphers perceptions, organizes and compares them, understands them cumulatively, and stores them as memories.  Thus, the eyes and the mind each have a particular impact on perception of light.

In the same way, optics and photosensitive mediums impact photographic composition and photographic representations of light.

Optics mediate light before the light is recorded photographically (in most cases).  Whenever this is the case, the peculiar logic of the mediating optic(s) pervades the record:

When a camera with a 55 mm lens records light, the logic of the optic is so similar to that of the lenses of human eyes, the result seems natural to us and we do not attend to the present optical logic.  But when the optic of a photographic instrument is significantly different than our organic lenses, as in a fisheye lens, the result seems foreign, yet logical.

To be continued…

Photography (part 1)

Photography mechanically records light into a medium.  Photography uses light as a catalyst to manipulate material (including more light) so that the material represents the recorded light.  Photography records emitted or reflected light in one of two mediums:

• photosensitive (photochemical) material
• algebraic, digital medium

The original light can then be represented in one of three ways:

• Projection
• Filtration and Refraction
• Reflection

Projection can be optical or pixilated.  Filtration sends white light through variously tinted material(s) to absorb certain portions of the white light and allow the rest through.  Reflection is of available light from mirrors, dyes, and/or pigments.  Projected and filtered light may be directly viewed as emitted light or such light may be reflected off another surface for final viewing.

Qualities

Because photography uses light as a scribe, the visual qualities in a work of art that evidence photographic generation will include (1) the physical properties and manners of light as it exists and interacts with the rest of creation and (2) the logic of any mediating optics.  (3) If photochemical materials are used to generate a representation of light, their peculiar qualities will also evidence photographic generation.

To be continued…

Digital (part 1)

Digital refers to the substitutionary medium in which data are codified, stored, manipulated, and made to generate presentations in material media.  Digital data can be represented in physical forms, and visual information can be digitally encrypted.  However, every datum is itself intangible, and so cannot be visual art.

The digital encryption of data is basically algebraic: that is, numbers are made to substitute for all kinds of information.  Yet, the numbers are not the data for which they substitute.  The numbers are symbols, which can be manipulated mathematically and put to use to command output devices.

Visual output devices include:

• Monitors
• Projectors
• Printers

Other devices are used to mechanically detect light and encrypt (as numbers) the physical properties that light discloses, for it is light that makes things visible.[1]  Such devices include:

• Video Cameras
• Cameras
• Scanners

Other devices can be used to detect form on bases other than light.  Ultrasound equipment, for instance, detects certain densities of matter.  But the findings of an ultrasound are viewed on a monitor, projector screen, or printout via light.  The translation from a sonic reading to a visual display is accomplished by assigning substitutionary meanings to numbers—the digital medium.

Happily, the artist who uses digital means does not need to fully understand how the medium works.  In fact, artists who employ digital devices usually do not need to thoroughly understand how their equipment and software works in order to successfully put them to use.

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[1] Ephesians 5:13-14

Train Fragments

Relief, Monotype, Colored Pencil
3.75 x 3.75 inches

These are some more in this subset of the Fragments suite:

        

wonder

3 layers: 2 Stone Lithograph and 1 Woodcut
6.5 x 8.25 inches

presentation of Christ

3-layer (2) Woodcut and (1) Waterless Lithography
6 x 6 inches