Going Digital
Introduction: Shibu Arakkal, discusses the recent trends in photography with Puja Goyal.
Q: What are the different trends in photography as of now, and how has it changed from the past. (As per E.g.: still photography, B & W, digital etc.)
S.A: There is a lot more experimentation in photography especially with the advent of digital photography; a lot more things are possible today. Most of the emerging trends seem to be happening outside India, especially because photography abroad has such a serious status and laws that protect the photographers. The trends that have emerged is the practice of using digital mediums in a way where high resolution images can be emailed to anyone, anywhere excluding the usage of film, prints and any form of transport (which might take days).
Also a lot of artists (painters, sculptors, graphic artists etc.) in India and abroad are turning to photography as their medium of expression, giving photography the seriousness it has so richly deserved. Now, photography is certainly considered a serious art form abroad and getting that respect increasingly in India too. Art collectors have been collecting photography in the west for a few years now and that’s beginning to happen in India too.
In the past photography has been looked at as merely a commercial entity and the serious conceptual work was few and far between as compared to the large scale usage of the medium. That has all changed as of today with the numbers practicing it in all its forms. The digital medium has given photographers the option of choosing film or the digital media. Contrary to popular belief I don’t think film will ever become extinct, just as the radio has survived and the large box cameras of the past have too.
Q: Is there anything called good photography and bad photography?
S.A: Its like asking is there good art and bad art? A simplistic answer would be ‘no’. Just because anyone can photograph or paint doesn’t make him or her a photographer or a painter. It’s either art or not and it is also subjective to a large extent. The thin line is called discernment and it can only come with exposure and the ability to appreciate art in general. Photography like art is the combination of skill and original creative thinking, as a result I would say there’s either good photography or just reproduction.
Q: Are digitally enhanced pictures spoiling the art of photography?
S.A: Absolutely not. The art of photography i.e., the original creative thinking has to be aided by technical proficiency and the digital medium is just that, techniques or a set of tools. One still needs the perspective or the creative thinking to make something of a subject to call it art. So like conventional means of production in photography, the digital medium is just a set of newer tools.
Q: Where do new trends leave contemporary photography?
S.A: In a very exciting new age I predict. With all the worldwide acceptance of photography as an art form, with so many painters, graphic artists and others using photography as their medium of expression photography just got serious, both in the commercial as well as the artistic forms of it.
Contemporary photography, both commercially and artistically are forcing people to rethink their whole perspective on the medium as it existed in the past, compared to today as well as the appreciation towards it as a serious art form.
Q: What are the different trends in photography as of now, and how has it changed from the past. (As per E.g.: still photography, B & W, digital etc.)
S.A: There is a lot more experimentation in photography especially with the advent of digital photography; a lot more things are possible today. Most of the emerging trends seem to be happening outside India, especially because photography abroad has such a serious status and laws that protect the photographers. The trends that have emerged is the practice of using digital mediums in a way where high resolution images can be emailed to anyone, anywhere excluding the usage of film, prints and any form of transport (which might take days).
Also a lot of artists (painters, sculptors, graphic artists etc.) in India and abroad are turning to photography as their medium of expression, giving photography the seriousness it has so richly deserved. Now, photography is certainly considered a serious art form abroad and getting that respect increasingly in India too. Art collectors have been collecting photography in the west for a few years now and that’s beginning to happen in India too.
In the past photography has been looked at as merely a commercial entity and the serious conceptual work was few and far between as compared to the large scale usage of the medium. That has all changed as of today with the numbers practicing it in all its forms. The digital medium has given photographers the option of choosing film or the digital media. Contrary to popular belief I don’t think film will ever become extinct, just as the radio has survived and the large box cameras of the past have too.
Q: Is there anything called good photography and bad photography?
S.A: Its like asking is there good art and bad art? A simplistic answer would be ‘no’. Just because anyone can photograph or paint doesn’t make him or her a photographer or a painter. It’s either art or not and it is also subjective to a large extent. The thin line is called discernment and it can only come with exposure and the ability to appreciate art in general. Photography like art is the combination of skill and original creative thinking, as a result I would say there’s either good photography or just reproduction.
Q: Are digitally enhanced pictures spoiling the art of photography?
S.A: Absolutely not. The art of photography i.e., the original creative thinking has to be aided by technical proficiency and the digital medium is just that, techniques or a set of tools. One still needs the perspective or the creative thinking to make something of a subject to call it art. So like conventional means of production in photography, the digital medium is just a set of newer tools.
Q: Where do new trends leave contemporary photography?
S.A: In a very exciting new age I predict. With all the worldwide acceptance of photography as an art form, with so many painters, graphic artists and others using photography as their medium of expression photography just got serious, both in the commercial as well as the artistic forms of it.
Contemporary photography, both commercially and artistically are forcing people to rethink their whole perspective on the medium as it existed in the past, compared to today as well as the appreciation towards it as a serious art form.
© 2004 Puja Goyal
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