Combination Printing

[RayHeath]

G'day Clive

I'm prompted to ask, what integrity, which reality?

Any photograph is inherently a construction and a manipulation, from subject selection to image presentation.

[Trevor Crone]

Originally Posted by RayHeath

G'day Clive

I'm prompted to ask, what integrity, which reality?

Any photograph is inherently a construction and a manipulation, from subject selection to image presentation.

Hi Ray - you are right but I would suggest it is a matter of degree. If there are 'boundaries' of integrity or reality? How far do we go before we break these boundaries? Does it really matter?

[cliveh]

Originally Posted by RayHeath

G'day Clive

I'm prompted to ask, what integrity, which reality?

Any photograph is inherently a construction and a manipulation, from subject selection to image presentation.

Some images have more integrity than others.

[vincent]

I used to be quite keen on this type of darkroom work but as someone has already mentioned PS makes this type of photo all too easy to produce. I am now reluctant to engage in it. I now feel no matter how good the result the end photo is not something I saw and captured, but something that I designed at a later stage with negs that failed to work on their own. At least that has being my experience and conclusion.

[Maris]

Originally Posted by cliveh

Some images have more integrity than others.

How true! Photography is the name of a particular process and a photograph can be said to embody integrity if the process has been carried out faithfully.

Opposite to Ray Heath's challenge I would assert that photography is special among picture making processes in that it does not use "construction". Given light, a subject, a camera, and film in the appropriate arrangement a photograph "happens" via the dumb laws of physics exerting their ineluctable force.

Significantly all this takes place in the only reality that there is; the state of things as they are as opposed to the imaginary worlds open to painters and Photoshopographers.

And while it may be true that subject matter and picture presentation can be manipulated neither of these activities are photography.

[cliveh]

Originally Posted by Maris

Significantly all this takes place in the only reality that there is; the state of things as they are as opposed to the imaginary worlds open to painters and Photoshopographers.

And while it may be true that subject matter and picture presentation can be manipulated neither of these activities are photography.

Excuse my ignorance, but what are Photoshopographers?

[Dave miller]

Originally Posted by cliveh

Excuse my ignorance, but what are Photoshopographers?

Worry not; it's a Shakespeareinism.

[Dave miller]

Sorry, can’t accept any of this, as I’ve admitted before, I don’t do reality. If I were a forensic photographer then I would try my best to faithfully record a scene, however boring; but I’m not.
I consider a scene; decide if I want to capture it, if so, I select the most favourable viewpoint, one that will emphasise positive attributes, or hide things that I don’t wish to appear on the negative. The focal length of my lens will be chosen to compliment the viewpoint, and a suitable filter fitted, or not. Exposure is selected to record the important part. Whilst I’m doing this I will be considering such after work as may be required, format cropping, printing contrast, and whether elements in the scene may need removing or disguising during printing. Apart from these considerations I faithfully record what I imagine I see; sometimes it works.

[RayHeath]

So Clive, can you elaborate on just which images have more integrity? Could you perhaps post an example?

Maris, I think your definition of photography is somewhat limited. Yes the action of light is a pure and simple natural occurence. Can you explain the "Chemical rays" part of the quote?

[cliveh]

Originally Posted by RayHeath

So Clive, can you elaborate on just which images have more integrity? Could you perhaps post an example?

Well as an example, I would say any one of the photographs taken by George Rodger during the liberation of Belsen, has more integrity than say a David Lachapelle fashion shot.