Photography Reborn: Image Making in the Digital Era (Abrams Studio)
The digital photography revolution may have taken place somewhat secretively inside dark boxes-cameras and computers-but the impact of digital photography, which is the subject of photographer and educator Lipkin's thorough introduction to the medium, has yet to be fully realized. Since its invention, photography has been a tool to both authenticate and manipulate experience. It is precisely this paradox that has made the medium so intriguing for critics, historians, photographers and viewers. But photography has never been as untrustworthy as it is now, and, according to Lipkin, it has also never been as creative. In accessible prose, Lipkin illustrates how digital photography has expanded the medium's expressive potential, ultimately bringing it closer to painting. This new definition of photography is supported by illustrations that range from abstract to realist to fantastical, with an emphasis on more challenging, if not creepy, images. The inclusion of computer-generated, digital images that appear to be photographs, but are not, such as visual representations of subatomic structures and avatars, may seem unwarranted, but fit Lipkin's idea that photography's authority and meaning have radically changed. Lipkin takes some provocative and challenging stances, such as arguing that we have reverted to a 19th-century way of seeing with this new technology, making for an intriguing read.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.