Customer Reviews

Photography Reborn: Image Making in the Digital Era (Abrams Studio)

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The one thing you can say about digital photography is that it is certainly changing fast. And in this book Mr. Lipkin shows what a series of what you might call photographer/artists have done using digital images and computer manipulation of those images.

In many cases, you might view these images as closer to paintings than photographs. In other cases, the images are of things that we cannot see ourselves, MRI images from inside the skull of a living person, mountains on the surface of Venus. Other images are from somewhere in the mind of the producer. These might be composite pictures of several people, these might be images that start with a photograph but which now are so distorted and colors so changed that their origin is difficult to see.

This is not a book of techniques, it is a book of results, of ideas from the minds of people who are carrying digital photography into new areas.

Having recently read Susan Bright (Art Photography Now) and Charlotte Cotton (The Photograph As Contemporary Art), I can vouch that Lipkin avoids the deliberately opaque writing style his peers employ. And he seems to have some interesting ideas about how artists change with technology.

Unfortunately those ideas are often buried in thematic blubber. Lipkin's chapters are amorphous, no clear idea emerging through. He never fully says what a chapter is and why the photos are tied in. For instance, many of the photos in "The Body Electric" would seem more tied to "Portraiture in the Digital Age", at least going by the names. It would seem that clear sentences and an insightful writer would ensure a good book. Unfortunately, the lack of a decent editor standing over Lipkin's shoulder, telling him to define his ideas, predominates.

Still, you'll be exposed to 30 or so really great artists and some interesting points of view. One of his ideas--that Jennycam represented some major change in image-making and photography--was particularly annoying to me, as the accompanying J-cam images are artless and careless. Photography implies some vision sculpting an individual image; Jennicam was shapeless and random. That said, I appreciate Lipkin's provocation, here and elsewhere.

The book concludes with a tedious and, again, poorly defined history of digital photography (at one point Lipkin says the first digital image was created in 1957; then later says "the earliest digital images ... actually preceded the growth of electronic communication", the phone having been widely known for 50 years earlier). Given a chance to tie his disparate chapters together, Lipkin unwisely skimps on his bread-and-butter (theory) and instead emphasizes mechanical processes.

It is truly amazing the rate at which technology moves! Four years ago, the author thought that film photography was here to stay for a long while because digital cameras were expensive, not so good, and anyway, people would need fancy computers and printers to make accessible photos. Now easy internet business is routinely conducted with digital images. But, as Lipkin points out, in PHOTOGRAPHY REBORN, it is not only that digital photography takes the place of film. It does, but it also is a genuine new medium. This book tells how and why digital images can outmanipulate experience and reality, be a new aesthetic medium and be more subversive than film photographs in which Trotsky's image was removed from Stalin's. In fact, the book tells not only how digital photography works, but also is a great guide to what it promises to do in the future.

I came across this book by chance and was immediately transfixed by some of the images inside. This is a fascinating survey of the last two decades of digitally altered photography. Many of the images push the limits of what is possible, both in terms of imagination and the tools and techniques that are available. Some of the images from the early nineties for instance had been created long before Photoshop came along, and they make one stop and pause to think about the artistry and image manipulation savviness of some of these pioneering artists. Today we may take some of these techniques for granted, but it never ceases to amaze me how creative some of these images are. A few of the images are in fact quite disturbing, and the viewer discretion is advised. They are hauntingly surrealistic and they may stay with you for a while.

The images tell only half the story in this case, and the rest of this book is filled with insightful essays and comments. These are very interesting in their own right and contribute to deeper appreciation of digitally created or altered photography. This is not the most exhaustive book on this subject, but it certainly provides a very good retrospective of the creative ideas and processes that want into creating some very captivating instances of photographic art.

PHOTOGRAPHY REBORN: IMAGE MAKING INTHE DIGITAL ERA is a fascinating little book that now after five years since its publication seems more of a bit of art history than an informative source. Jonathan Lipkin waxes enthusiastic about this 'new art form' in this book and by now Lipkin can be listed as one of the early exponents of digital photography. He explains with numerous examples that manner in which an image can be altered in the computer to go beyond where conventional photography can go. And among the many images reproduced well here are works by early art photographers who pioneered this medium - artists such as Nancy Burson, Andreas Gursky, Loretta Lux, Pedro Meyer and others. It is a very solid reference point for the introduction of digital manipulation of photographs.

Now, with digital manipulation of photographic images so popular in both advertising, films, and fine art, this book seems a bit wide-eyed and it is for that reason that the book remains important for collectors today. With photographic images that are not manipulated becoming more rare it is healthy to return to the early stages of this manner of creating a 'new art'. For this reason alone, in addition to the fact that this little book is a very interesting read for beginners, this manual and monograph belongs in the art libraries of all who respect the historical aspects of art movements. Grady Harp, December 10

I bought this used for $3.00,for one of my photography classes, and it was in perfect condition!

This book achieves what it sets out to do, but I was disappointed in the author's uncritical enthusiasm. The survey of artists who use digital manipulation to make creative images is not very inspiring. The reproductions are high quality but there is much better work (pictures) out there being published. The text is even less inspiring because the author is so sold on digital imaging that he seems to be selling digital cameras and even sings the praises of cell phone cameras.

I agree that digital images are much easier to make and hence many more images are probably being made now than in the past, but the author doesn't seem to see much value in the sparkling resolution and breathtaking contrast of traditional hand-made prints from film, compared to the relatively flat digital prints the industry is trying to sell people. The author repeats commercial claims about the supposed quality of digital images but such claims have not been confirmed by independent tests.

Instead of technical virtuosity in the medium we are supposed to settle for aesthetic rhetoric about the thought-provoking nature of what are often uninteresting and unrealistic subjects. Digital imaging is certainly cleaner and more convenient than traditional photography, but let's not confuse those qualities with the vividness of a chemically processed transparency or silver or platinum print.

Modern abstract art has been criticized as a more efficient (cheaper) way to mass produce paintings for sale, and digital images can be accused of the same thing. This book is an uncritical look at the digital revolution, and that is not very educational.

Update: High quality digital cameras are now available for about $2,000, and the flat images typical of such cameras can be rendered more three-dimensional by adding a slightly S-shaped curve in Photoshop. But you can still get a used medium format film camera for half the price. When the price of high-quality digital cameras comes down to $1,000 I'll reread this book and rewrite this review!