Photography in the Digital Age
Robert Wilkinson
I've been involved with computers and photography for a long time. I've always felt that I had some artistic talent, and I thought that photography could give it a voice. However, I got so involved in the tools and techniques that I lost track of what I wanted to say. Occasionally I could produce a photograph that really pleased me, but it was certainly a hit or miss situation. About 10 years ago, near the beginning of the digital revolution, a friend showed me some of the wonderful things that could be done with a photograph even with the slow computers and crude tools that were available at the time. The technology advanced rapidly over the next couple of years. It didn't take me long to realize that this digital thing was going to be the enabler that I needed to give me an artistic voice. I sold all of my darkroom equipment and most of my fancy cameras and concentrated on making images using digital techniques. I find that now I'm spending much more time thinking about images, rather than tools. I used to have to think about all the nuts and bolts first, pre-visualizing the final image. It was very frustrating because I seldom knew beforehand what I wanted to do with a scene. Within limits, working digitally allows me to capture a scene that interests me and then work out many of the details later on the computer screen as the image starts to speak to me. |
In some circles my credentials are suspect because not only am I a photographer but I do things digitally. For some people, this brands me as not a "REAL" artist. I try to ignore those silly people because they're missing the point. Brushes, knives, oils, watercolor, computers - what's the difference? They're all tools. Creativity is beyond tools. Some people have the media confused with art. Is oil better than watercolor? Is watercolor better than pastels? Are both better than photography? Is everything better than digital? Then again, for some people the media is the art - the more complicated the process the more artful the result. Photographers are especially prone to this problem - if you have nothing to say, say it beautifully. The ability to create and appreciate aesthetic things is one of the defining characteristics of humanity. People are driven to create art not for any specific audience or for saleability but to make a mental image tangible for both the artist and his audience. I have heard the term "tradigital" used to describe traditional artforms that use digital techniques in some manner in the creation, modification or printing (vs computer generated art, which has no traditional equivalent). The term is especially applicable to my work, which involves digital techniques in nearly every phase. Since many of my images don't look much like conventional photographs and everything I do is labeled "digital", many viewers are curious as to how I work and how the images are created. Basically, I now use a computer much as I used to use a darkroom to create and manipulate images. Although using a computer in this manner is new and controversial, it's only a very powerful tool, not magic - no art is created without the intense involvement of an artist. I mostly use a professional digital camera to capture images, although I sometimes use a conventional camera and have the negatives converted (digitized) to a form that my computer can understand. All modification and manipulation of an image is then done on the computer screen. I then use specialized ink-jet printers to produce the final print on various types of paper. These prints are called giclées. My work is influenced by the Pictorialist movement of the 1920's and 30's. These photographers were more concerned with the aesthetics and the emotional impact of the image than with what was actually in front of the camera. They used numerous techniques to create beautiful, painterly images that drew positive responses from their viewers. Like them, I enjoy finding and emphasizing the beautiful in ordinary scenes, eliminating unnecessary details and intensifying colors. In this way, I can share the vision of my mind's eye with the viewer, and let them feel some of the emotions I felt when I first discovered the scene. I'm essentially a self-taught photographer. I've developed my techniques through experimentation and observation. I have also attended numerous workshops, including several under photographer and author Robin Perry. My work has been exhibited at The Visual Eyes Gallery in London. I won First Prize for digital images in a national competition sponsored by Ritz camera, as well as numerous prizes in local competitions. I am an elected member of the Artists Cooperative Gallery of Westerly and of the Foundry Artists of Providence in Rhode Island. I am also a member of the Mystic Art Association. My work has been juried into exhibits at the Slater Museum, the Mystic Art Association and the Granite Street Gallery, all in Connecticut. |