chronology

the story – photography

psychographs

thursday, february 2, 2011

01.On this murky, cold day with light snow in the air I was on the assignment. It was to take some photos at the welcoming desk during Seneca week. One of the main attractions was an old fashioned photo booth. Polaroid kind strips of photos are made here and most of the students and some of the teachers and staff were quite ecstatic about this option..

02.I tried it too. Strip was made in the booth and the smll photo far right is made in the same moment with the camera I am holding. [psychograph ] This made me thinking about photography and the road this medium took from the end of 19th century, when it was invented, until today. This "old fashioned" instant photographic technique was introduced around 1950s as the revolutionary move from the traditional photography.

03.Even when I first get seriously interested in the photography, around 1968, it was in its infancy stage with all the developers, fixatives, toners and similar chemicals, dark room, enlargers.

04.This book left was one of more serious ones I used to improve my dark room technique and better understand optics, other technical aspects of the camera, but also composition and artistic side of the photos. Being photographer was challenging task, investment in equipment was significant and time to learn and achieve good results was long process.

05.Today, just 43 years later??, we have all those inexpensive point and shoot digital cameras capable of making good photos almost without any understanding how photography is functioning.

06.But largest and most significant change is that photography is not trusted any more. Since invented photography was always considered proof of the observed event. Now with all computer technology and "photoshops" none can be trusted. Even the photos here are actually altered, top left - increased contrast to see more snow flakes, top right - combined from two different photos, on the photo booth photo faces of the people inside were blurred. What is the truth any more?

07.Now for your enjoyment, few photos from my collection. I am in the middle of the photo left, taken in 1953 by my father, photo is approximately 90% of the original size. Second photo bellow is taken on May 21, 1895 in Beograd, kingdom of Srbija[it is still not the oldest I have, older ones are from 1883 and 1884]. This one is interesting because little girl in the middle is my grandmother Anka with her parents, Radule and Jelena.

a.j. [psychographs@urbansquares.com]