> It was Bob who pointed out that the assumption is Photoshop, and he may be > right. I was just saying that it isn't necessarily a bad thing in that > people have accepted photographs as truth when they were anything but. Yes it was. But is cynicism on such a grand scale such a good thing? Sure, we can think of a few dozen classic examples in the pre-PS era where govenments used photos tofurther thier cause. But I'll bet 99.999% of snaps were exactly what they were seen to be: photographic records. Now, it's probably down to 99% yet they are all tarred with the same brush. There's no slur on "pixel painters" (aka graphic artists). Creating pleasing images has as much merit in the digital era as it did for the pre-Raphelites. The fact remains though that anyone who saw/used photography as a means of documenting, recording etc the world around them has had thier endeavours rendered (deliberate choice of word) less believable. Why is it so hard to understand the difference between taking and making pictures? Sure, viewpoint may have carefully excluded a building site from an idyllic beach scene but that part of the scene is still real. Cloning such a site out is pure fiction / lie depending on the use made of the image. > A good example is Curtis - although his efforts to document the > disappearing Indian culture are laudable, he often dressed his subjects in > clothes that had no relationship to the traditions he claimed they > represented. The whole concept of "truth" is debatable. His photos were still genuine photos - of a staged event. Just as HCB's "decisive moment" shots were real snapshots of staged events too. It was not the camera that lied! Digital is here and here to stay. It satisfies the modern worlds quest for speed and modern man's love of shopping. No more does a budding photographer buy a Hassleblad and then, errr, use it for 3 decades. No, you spend far more than that on your first camera then replace it every 2-3 years in a never ending struggle to keep up to date. But the buzz of that "retail therapy". What can replace that? <Grin> Bob A) There are two kinds of fool. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." One says, "This is new, and therefore better" -- John Brunner B) There are only 10 different kinds of people in the world: those who know binary and those who don't.
