The Photograph in a Digital Age : a necessary shift in perception

My thesis is about photography and its aesthetics in a world of digitized culture. The main hypothesis is that there is an ongoing and fundamental change in the way photographs and images are being produced, distributed and consumed in society, resulting in a new kind of aesthetics, that did not previously exist in photography. I argue that digital photography should be seen as part of a wider range of digital imaging, as a separate field from traditional analogue photography. My observation is on all different aspects of photographic practice: artistic, technical and social; on the different aspects of photographic expression in different artistic, social and scientific practices (both analogue and digital). Fundamental issues are how the digital divide changes our perception, the way we work and how we process and understand images. I complement academic thought with empirical observations derived from my background as a practicing media-artist and film- and photography professional with almost two decades experience from the field. I start by introducing a basic history of photography, in order to place the practice in a historicaly and technologically determined context, followed by defining what a photograph is in an analogue and digital sense. The main discussion looks at aesthetic concepts related to photography and imaging. This is mainly done by deconstructing formal aspects of the image/photograph and examining the photographs function as a representation of reality and truth. To support my thoughts and to argue against conflicting theories, I mainly rely on writings and thoughts by authors like Bruce Wands, Vilém Flusser, Jerry L. Thompson, Martin Hand and Charlie Gere. From more classic writers on photographic theory I use Susan Sontag, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Roger Scruton. The aim is to create a comprehensive image of the field of thought, both on a contemporary and historical axis, and through this build a solid base for understanding and argumentation. I conclude that we are already living in the future, and that the reality we know will change with an ever-increasing pace, soon taking the step over to augmented and virtual reality. Current and future image makers should consider in depth what it really means to create images in a digital universe. A new way of seeing digitally is crucial for future understanding of the changing digital landscape of images