Posted by Rick Denney on September 01, 2002 at 23:05:48:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: A serious but strange short survey posted by Kenneth Sloan on September 01, 2002 at 22:39:12:
It was not my intention to be rude, and I hope I didn't offend. The issues bear on all artists, and my point is to expand horizons. My arguments suggest a stronger opinion than I really have.
In fact, there are not right and wrong answers, because I don't think it is a moral issue. Now, if I took a manipulated photo and passed it off as being unmanipulated, that would be a lie, and that's wrong. The debate in photography circles is whether photographs imply that promise, even when not accompanied by words.
When I used musical arguments to photographers, they were surprised at how much manipulation goes on, such as in recording classical music. This has been true since technology has made it possible. Not many recording engineers feel guilty about making corrections to classical recordings, such as editing toghether flawless fragments to make a flawless whole. Yet the assumption is that these are real performances, which they are, but only in pieces. The photographers didn't understand that. And most musicians might not realize that photographs have been manipulated since technology made it possible, in many cases with disclosure and no negative comment, but in some cases without disclosure. I think the photographers learned from the direction music has gone. My point in bringing up the technical details is that fixing these problem using traditional techniques is hard or more often impossible, which means the temptation to use effective digital tools is overwhelming.
What I'm finding is that most photographers have really strong opinions on this subject, but to most other folks, they are all just photographs.
Rick "apologizing if he was offensive" Denney