The Camera as an Afterthought: Redefining Post Photography

The Camera as an Afterthought: Redefining Post Photography

 In recent years many scholars have said that photography is in crisis as a medium, some claiming it as dead, in the advent of camera phones empowering citizen journalists and 8K RED film cameras being used for fashion photography, it is clear to see why many have criticised photography.  In order to combat this, many photographers have adapted their practices in order to incorporate photography as an altered state.   Robert Shore ammasses 300 diffrent artists in his book that have adopted this method of working.

 It is no surprise that photographers have began to incorporate found images within their work, there is an abundance of pre-existing material in our hyper-documented world.  As there is so much information that is free for use many artists use this information in projects.  Examples of post photographs that are only possible due to this mass of public information include ‘documenting’ the 1960’s Zambian plan to go to the moon and postcards taken from Google Earth of highways at unusual angles.  

 This shift in the practise is not happening without criticism, in 2011 the World Press Photo awards gave Michael Wolf an honourable mention for his Google Street View images in his project Unfortunate Events, they received a heavy amount of backlash for this decision.  

 In support of post photography Martha Rosler has pointed out that ‘manipulation is integral to photography’.  Images have always been manipulated, through framing, lighting and printing so why is post photography so different, Geoff Batchen said “The absence of truth is an inescapable face of photographic life”.  Post photography isn’t a dramatic change, just a part of the digitalisation of photography.