Customer Reviews

The Impossible Image

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "The Impossible Image," Mark Sanders explores the ways technology is changing fashion photography. He questions whether we should even consider digitally manipulated photographs to be photography. Even though the subject was shot with a camera, computer manipulation plays a large, if not a larger role, than the camera.

Take for example, Vincent Peters' images of the super model, Gisele. Placed in a glass box in the center of the frame, pedestrians stare at her through the glass. The catch is that the pedestrians were not present at the time of the photograph, but manipulated in a completely believable fashion into the photograph. On the other spectrum, Phil Poynter's "I Didn't Recognize You With Your Clothes On" portfolio is obviously manipulated. Relying on sexual connotation, the photographs depict clothing as if it were on a human, but in an empty frame. The body has been completely erased from the photograph leaving only an impression of reality.

What makes this book so fascinating is Sanders' understanding of the history of photography. For Sanders, photography has always been thought of as a `factual' visual system. We believe it to be a process that "never lies" because, the subject was physically in the same space as the camera at the time it was photographed. What Sanders examines is a collection of digitally manipulated images in different stages of this understanding. In the beginning of the book, he presents images that could easily be mistaken for what was actually in front of the camera at the time it was shot. Towards the end of book, there are more obviously computer manipulated images that are instantly recognizable as such to the viewer. Within this progression, our understanding of manipulation changes and the lines between photography and digital manipulation blur into questions about the role of photography in modern society.

The photographs are really captivating! They are all from Brit pop magazines like The Face and BIG... It's really worth to get this book and make it part of your artistic senses collection. Some of the photographs aren't really special and are TOO obviously alterted by computer (which even I can do it) but a lot of them are fresh ideas. The 6 ladies including the one on the cover are already stunning for a start so, well!