Images Of An Accurate And Unbiased Reality

The debate which argues whether the artistic and scientific medium of photography captures images of an accurate and unbiased reality or merely an impression or interpretation of a moment in time, is one which is just as relevant now as it was at photograph’s conception. Considering the length of time which this has been pertinent, William Henry Fox Talbot and Paul Graham are interesting artists to compare and contrast. The first being one of the early pioneers of the photographic movement, a British scientist who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, which were a precursor to later 19th and 20th century permanent processes. He very much saw photography as a purely scientific and documentary driven practice which could essentially …show more content…
This is due to the medium of photography having moved from a scientific indexical practice to a more artistic one (though the indexical practice does still occur). This argument is highlighted by Bate where he states that; ‘realism is an aesthetic theory based on similarity or an identity between the photograph and depicted reality’ (Bate 2009). The photograph cannot therefore be regarded as a realistic reproduction of the world but simply as a complex culmination of different observations and viewpoints on reality. Subsequently, a photograph cannot ensure the observation of reality, but offers us at most, a directed way of experiencing a reality. It is important to highlight the role of the viewer in this relationship, which is particularly emphasized by the French philosopher Roland Barthes. He considered that every recipient of a message (in this case the message behind or within an image) is inevitably subject to cultural and personal influences and will always recognise a further meaning beneath the analogical content of an image, one which is subliminally emotively emotively or psychologically driven. So when we apply this philosophy to the work of Paul Graham, we can understand what he was attempting to achieve – the almost bland, devoid of detail images plays upon the importance of the viewers' impression, past experiences and personal reality. Otherwise his images would be meaningless, on an analogical level, technically flawed photographs which would be irrelevant (as according to Talbot’s thinking, they would be regarded as such). Graham affronts the view that every image (of the world), be it “natural” or “artificial”, is a construction. Apparent through American night, where the collection is a calculated grouping of images created to achieve an emotive or psychological response from the viewer. This concept is mirrored in some contemporary