The New Photograph

Video has been set in front of all photographers as they gather around like engineers taking the parts to create a new era of print. Condé Nast is launching an iPad version of GQ. Vanity Fair and Wired is following in their footsteps and greeting all digital viewers. This transition to the digital print will change the way photographers work. To some this is exciting news, while others start to fear the death of photography. I, on the other hand, think this is an amazing turn in the history of photography.

With digital publication comes video. Video really is just the great grandson of the photograph. The magazines are now looking for moving images that will display before an article and then become a still image. Instead of using strobes now they use a constant source to create their moving images. This development has brought new ways of artistic expression. Photographers shouldn’t look to video as if it isn’t what they do, rather they should embrace it as an extension of what they can do. Eventually the images will become interactive and that will bring new challenges to us; however, it will also bring on new inspirations. We should all warmly accept the future and explore what is to come.

Portraiture

Aleksandr Rodchenko argues that portraiture can be replaced by photography. Early portraiture was done as paintings, which photography tried to eventually mimic. Photographers attempted to capture the subject in a single shot but didn’t really capture the sum total of moments observed as a painting does. This synthetic portrait in a way captures the subject as a whole rather than a single moment. Rodchenko on the other hand, disputes this claim and says that photography can capture the sum total of moments observed through multiple snapshots. Instead of just a single photograph a set of a thousand (arbitrary number) photographs can capture the sum total of moments because it is a sum total of moments observed and taken by the photographers.

The two images of Jackie Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis were taken by Ron Galella. Galella is a paparazzo that was obsessed with taking photos of Onassis. He took hundreds and possibly thousands of photos of her. In one of the photographs Onassis is smiling out the window and captures her obvious popularity and need for people to watch after her as she goes anywhere. This photograph also shows her status, elegance, and charm. In the next photograph Onassis walks by turns and smiles as the wind blows her hair. This photo shows how she smiles all the time and really is a great candid portrait of her. Galella said that he actually had the taxi driver honk at her as she passed and snapped the photo when she passed by. Without realizing that a photograph was going to be taken she still smiles as she is rudely honked at. Galella always tried to capture the candid moments, this differs from other paparazzi because he always wanted to seem like he wasn’t there by hiding and shooting from far away. He also has boxes of similar images that portray Onassis. These candid photos of Onassis can be all looked through and show a true portrait of the former first lady, only when considered as a whole.

Occult Portrait