Introduction

For a century and a half, chemical photography has had a privileged status as a "truthful" means of representation. The notion that the camera offers a unique representation of nature itself, an accurate, objective copy of the real world, has been a popular one. Photography had, and to some extent still has, a remarkable weight and credibility that other forms of media, such as illustration or text, never had.
However, the advent of digital imaging [On the one hand, many artists welcome the new technology for its limitless creative possibilities. Mike Laye, for instance, remarks: "Photographers will be freed from [the] perpetual constraint, that of having, by definition, to record the reality of things, that which is really occurring... Freed at last from being mere recorders of reality, [...] creativity will be given free rein" (in Robins, 1991: 56). On the other hand, some theorists are more prone to alarmist statements, claiming the death of photography and the beginning of a new "post-photographic" [2] era (Mitchell, 1992; Ritchin 1990).

The issue of the status of the photographic image in the digital age is critical to address since photography has traditionally played a crucial role in the creation of collective memory and the formation of belief. We live in an extremely visual world - especially since the late 1880s [3] when the development of printing techniques enabled the reproduction of photographs in newspapers, books, and magazines (Keller, 1990: 195). Today, the typical urbanite is said to absorb about 11 000 images in the course of a given day. In the United States there are reportedly 260 000 billboards, 11 520 newspapers, and 11 556 periodicals (Postman, 1992: 69 and Friend, 1998: HREF). Fortune magazine reported that in 1990, seventeen billion photographs - more than 46 millions photos a day - had been generated in America alone (Nulty, 1991: 39). And even though, according to the same article, "only" five billion photographs had been made in 1970, British critic John Berger was already remarking back then that "in no other form of society in history has there been such a concentration of images, such a density of visual messages" (Berger, 1972: 129). These impressive numbers might suggest that since we are over-saturated with pictures, their impact might be diluted; Graham Clarke even suggests in The Photograph: "In a world dominated by visual images the photograph has become almost invisible" (Clarke, 1998: 11). Nevertheless, one could argue that we still rely heavily upon visual "evidence" for information about our world. David Friend, Editor for Creative Development at Vanity Fair, and former Director of Photography at Life, says:

As a society, we have become comfortable with images, and with the immediate and often emotional gratification that pictures provide. We are now accustomed, and I would even say conditioned, to needing a "picture fix" from many, many media outlets. We are voyeurs. Pictures still move us, day in, day out (Friend, 1998: HREF).

As we shall see, even though photographs have long been tampered with and many critics have stressed its constructed character, the issue of the credibility of the photographic image has never been as contested and central to the debate of representation as it is today, in the age of computer-imaging technology. Why has the issue of photo-manipulation become so omnipresent? Why do propositions to affix a symbol [4] to altered photographs arise only now and not twenty or fifty years ago? What are the differences between analog and digital that justify the claim that photography is dead? And, more importantly, what are the possible implications of the technology? These are some of the important questions to address. Of course, the development of digital imaging involves a number of other critical issues: ethical problems - in the field of documentary photography and photojournalism most notably - legal matters and questions of copyright for instance. However, these subjects, if mentioned in the course of this paper, are not intended to be fully covered. For more information, I direct the reader to the work of Martin Lister or Fred Ritchin for questions regarding ethics, especially in the domain of photojournalism, and to the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment for analysis and discussion on the problem of copyright in the digital age.

One of the most systematic premises held regarding digital imaging is that the new technology's endless possibilities for manipulation are destroying the truth effect of the photographic image. It is fundamental to understand what substantiates such an argument. The first chapter, entitled "The Myth of Photographic Truth," examines the origins of the unique credibility photographic images have historically enjoyed in our society. The analysis of photography's discourse through the writings of the pioneers of the medium, will show how the medium was established to be objective, automatic, and truthful. The work of theorists such as Rudolph Arnheim, Roland Barthes, André Bazin, Susan Sontag and John Tagg will constitute the theoretical framework for this chapter.
Moreover, many critics are concerned by the ease with which digital imaging is able to manipulate photographs and, as a result, public opinion. As Victor Burgin states: "Work with an obvious ideological slant is often condemned as 'manipulative'; that it to say, first, that the photographer manipulates what comes over in the image; second, that as a result his or her audience's beliefs about the world are manipulated" (Burgin, 1976: 75). Nonetheless, as we shall see in the second chapter, an examination of the history and theory of photograph will show that the medium has never been a realistic representation of reality and that manipulation has always been inherent to photography. In this section, the different manipulations performed in the darkroom will be presented and discussed in relation to their different applications: portraiture, art, and political propaganda. Chapter three first describes the present technological tools that permit the undetectable alteration of photographic images. This chapter also proposes to rethink photography and representation in the light of the recent changes brought by computer manipulation. In order to do so, the contemporary discourse that claims the death of photography will be examined. The implications of the current situation will be assessed through the writings of William J. Mitchell, Fred Ritchin, Kevin Robins and Martha Rosler, and possible solutions will be proposed. Finally, chapter four intends to determine how digital imaging is used to construct a world of simulation. The case of the representation of women in magazines will constitute the primary basis for this analysis. Moreover, it will examine the different alterations made on photographs of women and will attempt to demonstrate that the changes performed reveal our society's values and fears. Among the authors consulted are Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and Vivian Sobchack.
This thesis concludes that most of the alarmist discourses surrounding the issue of digital photography can be put into relative perspectives if one examines the history and theory of photography. In fact, most preoccupying is the systematic use of the technology which constructs a world of simulation. Using a famous analogy, one can argue that digital imaging is emphasising the shadows on the cave.

Chapter one »

Notes

1. The technology is also referred to as electronic, computer, digital imaging or retouching; computer enhancement, image processing, and electronic color imaging a.k.a. ECI. [back]

2. The term "post-photographic era" is said to have been given its currency with the title of William Mitchell's book The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-photographic Era, although the term was used earlier in Photovideo: Photography in the Age of the Computer (Ziff, 1991: 150). [back]

3. The technique I am referring to is the half-tone plate which enabled the reproduction of photographs in the print media and inaugurated the era of photojournalism. For more information on the half-tone plate I direct the reader to Naomi Rosenblum's A World History of Photography (Rosenblum, 1981: 451), and for further examination on the effects of the introduction of this technique of lithography, I direct the reader to Ulrich Keller's essay "Early Photojournalism" (Keller, 1990: 193-200). [back]

4. As we shall see later, some have proposed to attach a distinctive symbol to all the published photographs that have been digitally altered. [back]