cyberbarf

EXAMINE THE NET WAY OF LIFE

 

The Digital Divide ANALYSIS

The simple photograph has come a long way. It was first the realm of highly trained chemists who through magic made images appear on glass, and through the years has become so simple a small child can capture images. Technology has created a divide on what is now the true definition of a photograph.

We are all familiar with the humble snapshot. The photo albums across America's living rooms are filled with Polaroids of birthday parties, vacations and family holiday pictures. Preserving the past and memories has been infused into the American culture when society embraced the concept of putting technology into the hands of the average working class person. Whether it was waiting for a roll of 35 mm film to come back from the drug store or waiting for the instant picture to develop before peeling back the paper layers, part of the charm of taking pictures is the “reveal.” It is like opening a tightly wrapped present: you don't know what you have until you open it. Whether the image was good or bad (well lit, composed properly, defined space and subject matter in a frame) really did not matter to the average consumer. Taking photographs of the family was an activity, an archive of memories, to be passed on to be shared by the next generation. Children of shutterbugs have grown up with the idea of a camera recording family events. But in the beginning, getting a family picture meant going to a studio to have a professional capture that moment in time. The professional snapshot was the formal portrait, the photographic equivalent to the master painter who attempted to capture the image and soul of his subject on canvass.

For the amateur, the family snapshot's main pit fall is the “red eye” of the subjects. So the kids looked like satan's army, there was nothing one could do once the photograph was developed and printed. With the newer digital cameras, smart cameras can attempt to compensate for common errors like red eye. It even gives the photographer a chance to see the image immediately to determine if he needs to reshoot the subject, change the angle, or add/decrease the light source. The better the tools, the greater the chance of creating an acceptable picture.

Even if the image is not perfect in the camera, most people now have access to digital photography software. Photo printers come with basic image control software to clear up red eye, adjust color and contrast levels, and crop the scene. These basic techniques have been transported to a computer instead of a dark room of burning and dodging light to enhance the qualities of the image captured on the film. Most people would not consider this type of photo manipulation as being unprofessional or unethical. It is merely bringing forth the information stored within the actual image. It is not actually altering the reality of the final photograph.

But many professional photographers are finding their craft being warped by digital image manipulation. A photograph to them represents the actual subject matter frozen in time by the camera's lens. It is viewed as a historical document of a time and of a place. When a fashion photographer poses models, he or she is not interested in documenting a specific person in time or space. The goal is to create the most interesting photographic image (normally to sell magazines with covers or beauty products in ads). The fashion industry uses common standard operating procedures to enhance their images: whiten the eyes to make the models “healthier,” blend skin tones to take away an individual's tone spots or blemishes, and alter arms, legs or waists to make a more sexy waif appearance. These techniques are part of commercial photography because that's what the client demands in the end production.

The commercial enhancement has developed into “concept photographs.” The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words" is an accurate accounting for an interesting photograph that causes a person to react to the image. In the age of tabloids (before television/cable/internet), bloody black and white crime scene photographs on the front page sold urban newspapers. Historical representations of a scene or event became the early mission of photographers. The nation turned from one of an oral history to a written/documented history around the Civil War. Some of the most haunting and most significant documents of the time were the post battle pictures of Gettysburg and other major campaigns. One could read accounts of the battle and its aftermath, but viewing images of the dead, the injured, and the exhausted soldier in camp brought new understanding that words could not convey. The photographs of battles were not staged events; the photographer was their in a role of a historian to capture the images that his own eyes saw so he could share them with others. But today, some photographers go to great lengths to stage elaborate photographs that attempt, through imagery and props, to convey a story. Rolling Stone magazine is an example of this concept photography with its glitzy cover mock-ups.

It could be argued that there is nothing wrong with concept photographs on the cover of magazines. The commercial photographic image is there to sell magazines not depict an actual event. It is entertainment value and not event recordation. Purists worry about the concept of image intregity. If a photography is what the lens saw, the digital manipulation of that image is not truly a photograph anymore - - it is more an art work. The true ethical concern is when a photograph is manipulated to change the image in order to create a different reaction to the viewer. An example of this was the manipulation of an O.J. Simpson photograph during his murder trial, which added a rough beard which created a sinister quality. When a news magazine publishes such an altered image without telling its readers, the readership believes that it is an accurately represents the subject. It is now easy to change images with the simple clicks of mouse in Photoshop. When one combines images from different photographs into one image, that image is no longer a photograph, conservative professionals would say because the final image does not represent an actual camera capture. For example, it took less than two minutes for the author to take two unrelated photographs, combine them, and filter the image into a graphic of a woman pointing a gun at the back of one's head:

With some time, one could manipulate multiple images to look like a single photograph, capturing a event that never happened in real life. And that is the conservative professional's dispute with the ease of digital photograph manipulation: one can create fictional images but sell them as truth.

The latest example of this is the new Derek Jeter Topps baseball card. As a hoax or joke, an employee merged George Bush and Mickey Mantle into the background of the Jeter card. It was not supposed to be printed, but found its way past the proofers and into the set boxes. If the image was printed to capture a moment in Jeter's career, it was destroyed by the misinformation inserted into it. Professional photographers would call the final product a doctored picture to a fraud. With the ease of photographic manipulation, it is easy to understand why some do not believe in electronic evidence or secondary prints of subject matter.

 

 

Inspired by the world being on the verge of the wide world of professional video gamers,

there will be the same kind of professional sports weird craziness, like prima donna players and strange pro agents.

And the with the term, Rapter, we defer to the Japanese anime spelling just to be difficult/different.

A NEW REAL NEWS KOMIX:

RAPTER AGENT

 

The global on-line gaming experience has quietly exploded into a a bandwidth python of multi-hour, multi-kingdom game spheres. Whether it is the team combat arena, or the total simulated fantasy genre, more and more men and women are using their free time to escape to a virtual world. As a result of our tech guru's prodding suggestion, cyberbarf.com has created Sultanate of Clintonia-Rogstaden. Readers will have a running update of the status of this virtual country; get the backstories outside the game's program. For example, check out the images of the national currency. There will be inside jokes, satire, humor and pulse of a real bizarre country. New features will be added on a regular basis. So check out the cyber-soap opera of nation building here at cyberbarf.com.