'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
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a Flickr aesthetic
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September 11, 2009
In Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics in the Journal of Visual Culture (August 2008) Susan Murray says that:
The move to the digital alters many of the basics of photographic practice –whether practical or theoretical – for users and scholars alike. While theorists grapple with the meaning of photography without film, consumers have had to learn new practices and protocols and many have found new ways to use their cameras in their everyday lives. The relationship between photographer, camera, spectator, and the image changes in some fairly significant ways and yet... there is also much continuity between the practice ofdigital photography and what came before.
Murray says that whether professional or amateur, photography has traditionally been discussed in relation to history, memory, absence, and loss. However, the introduction of digital photography and accompanying websites such as Flickr have created an additional function to photography that has much more to do with transience than with loss.
The content of some of themost popular pages[on Flickr] has little relation to traditional snapshot photographyand is, in many ways, the opposite of pictorialist amateur photography (with its focus on realism, urbanization, and the small objects in life that often go noticed). It also has little to do with studio photography. It seems to speakto a new aesthetic and function – one dedicated to the exploration of the urban eye and its relation to decay, alienation, kitsch, and its ability to locate beauty in themundane
Instead, it is understood that an everyday aesthetic –whether present in digital photography, the internet, television, or in the life of the city streets – is fleeting, malleable, immediate, and contains a type of liveness in its initial appearance that is lost once it is placed under glass or replaced by an even more recent image.
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| | Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:01 PM | Permalink |
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