Digital Photography and Realism

'Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is always invisible: it is not what we see.' (Barthes, 1980: 6)
'Light - both natural and artificial - can thus be perceived as a custodian of truth. Seeing has become a cultural form of believing.' (Thomas 1996: 148)

• Photography became the means for which to observe the world, to describe its properties, and most importantly, to prove things existed within the relationship of space and time.
• New technologies have fundamentally transformed the way photographic images are produced as well as perceived.
• Digital photography is a medium that 'privileges fragmentation.' (Mitchel 1992:8) 
• Digital photography has so deeply penetrated current image culture.
• Lev Manovich indicates that what is lost however, is not realism, but only photographic realism.
• 'Manipulation is integral to photography." (Rosler 1991: 53)

(source: Digital photography and the question of realism, Antonia Bardis)

Relevance to my project:

This is relevant to my project as it has to do with reality. In my project I want to show the reality; the reality of everyday life and try to make the viewer believe that what they are seeing is reality and not manipulated digitally. In order to do this I thought about also showing the background, where the subject is in order to show the reality of everyday life but also show that life isn't as perfect as shown and therefore represent reality without manipulating the photos. However, after this week's lesson and looking at glitching, I had the idea of maybe using both the typical stereotypes of the female everyday life and also the reality of it and represent it but also use glitching. 

Photographer:

Michael Heffernan

source: michaelheffernan.com

Michael Heffernan makes images that are authentic and honest. Most importantly, these images create a narrative that tells the client's story. (source: michaelheffernan.com)

Relevance to my project:

Similarly to Michael Heffernan, I want to create a narrative that shows the subject's everyday life but also make the photographs authentic and honest in order to show reality and therefore I want the viewer to see reality and therefore relate. I had an idea of maybe creating a portrait and the subject to break the 4th wall instead.