Photography Reborn: Image Making in the Digital Era (Abrams Studio) - Softcover

Lipkin, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810992442 ISBN 13: 9780810992443

Publisher: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc.", 2005

Synopsis

Not long ago photographers considered digital pictures apostasy-but now film is increasingly being replaced as a great alternative medium for professionals, artists, and everyday snapshooters. Photography Reborn is the first comprehensive survey of this exciting new medium of visual expression-it is an essential reference for anyone who wants to understand this revolution.

In this important companion to a new art form, author Jonathan Lipkin chronicles the rise of digital technology and explores its impact as well as the limits of its possibilities. Every kind of digital image from MRI scans to fine art is highlighted here, from an obscure scientific application, through its adaptation by pioneer computer artists, to its acceptance by the mainstream of the art world. This seminal text-coupled with fascinating images and examples by contemporary artists Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Pedro Meyer, Nancy Burson, and Loretta Lux-is uniquely appropriate for anyone interested in visual communications, photography, and culture.

About this title

About the Author

For 15 years, Jonathan Lipkin has practiced and observed the phenomenon of digital photography as a photographer, writer, and educator both in the U.S. and internationally. He is associate professor of digital media at Ramapo College of New Jersey and serves on the graduate faculty of the School of Visual Arts' Computer Art and Photography and Related Media programs. He is coauthor of In the Realm of the Circuit. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

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.
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Edition details

• Publisher: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810992442
• ISBN 13: 9780810992443
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128