Feb. 2002
President's
Message
Article - "Cool Things to Try in the Cold Season - Part 2"
Article - "Is Digital Imaging Photography?"
Is Digital Imaging Photography - Another Perspective
- Eric Kissa
A photograph is an image produced on a light sensitive surface by the action of light. The sensitive surface is affected by light either chemically or electronically. The essential criteria is the use of light in at least one step of the image forming process. A photograph modified in a computer is still a photograph. For example, when a computer is used to add clouds to a landscape, this is not different from a modification done in a darkroom. The color of a photograph can be changed digitally instead of using filters on the lens. Distracting objects can be removed digitally or in a darkroom. However, if a new image is created by assembling various components in the computer, the image is no longer a photograph because light is not used to form the new composition. Although some of the components may have been produced by a photographic process, the image thus created is an entirely new composition and not a modified photograph.
Photographic art without "photo"
(light=photons) becomes graphic art. The boundary between photographic
art and graphic art is not sharp and depends on the significance light
has in the image creating process. Photography may be considered to be
one of the many graphic art forms but the reverse is true only when the
image is created by light. The need to differentiate can be avoided by
using the term "image" which encompasses both art forms and
has become increasingly popular.
How well a graphic image which
is not really a photograph is accepted by photographic contests and exhibitions
depends entirely on the judges. This has been the criterion in the past
and will be always the rule in the future.