This article, written by Daniel Rubenstein, explores photographies past, as well as its place in the future.
Rubenstein describes Immanuel Kants’ ‘Enlightenment’. Kant says “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity” (Kant, 1784). Rubenstein explains how “Kant was writing this at a time when a thousand years of Feudalism was ending, and he strived to define the emerging world order based on scientific method rather than religion, representational democracy rather than autocracy and market economy rather than bartering” (Rubenstein, 2018). This meant that at the time, Kant was trying to shift societies views to create a more communist society.
“The photo-graphic image combined some of the key attributes of the Enlightenment: rational method capable of producing identical results under controlled conditions, industrial processes that replaced physical labour with mechanised production, and the delirium of mass-replication that mimics the infinite circulation of commodities in a capitalist market” (Rubenstein, 2018). Rubenstein is talking about the mass production of images and other graphic images. Rather than an image or graphic being produced by a single person or small team of people, machinery was taking over the job and mass products.
Rubenstein describes photography as “the most suitable visual form to reflect on the changing face of society, as it was reshaped by industrialisation, is that it itself is a product of the same industrial processes that replaced human and animal muscles with motors and pistons, accelerated movement to ultrasonic speeds and exchanged craftsmanship with mass-production”. (Rubenstein, 2018). Photographs could take a snapshot of the moment, as it was, with no manipulation or artistic interpretation. Art, such as painting, could be interpreted and changed according to the artists imagination.
Rubenstein explains how Susan Sontag noted “‘cameras define reality in the two ways essential to the working of an advanced industrial society: as a spectacle (for the masses) and as an object of surveillance (for rulers)’”. Cameras were able to be used for documentation for leaders, as well as an art form for people to explore.
“Photography is still, above all else, the universal face of representation” (Rubenstein, 2018). Photographs are an accurate representation of the things we see around us. They can be used for identification purposes, as well as a way to document landscapes and the changes going on around us.
Rubenstein continues to look at photography and the media used to display the images. “in the 20th Century photography existed on a printed page”, as this was the only way to really display images. “In the 21st Century this arrangement is just as quaint as piecemeal production in the age of conveyer belt assembly. The photographic print disappeared everywhere apart from some galleries and nostalgic photography departments” (Rubenstein, 2018). In modern times, people view images on screens, scrolling through social media feeds to get their latest image fix. Photographs printed and displayed in galleries seem to be slowly starting to fade away. If people wish to see images by their favourite photographers, they can now find these images that have been scanned and uploaded online for everyone to see easily.
Rubenstein describes frames that house photgraphic images as “coffins of photography” (Rubenstein, 2018), which shows his view on printed media. By describing frames as coffins, Rubenstein alludes to how he thinks printed photographs are dying out due to the development of technology.
In his final paragraph, Rubenstein states “In the 21st Century, photography is not a stale sight for sore eyes, but the inquiry into what makes something an image. As such, photography is the most essential task of art in the current time” (Rubenstein, 2018).
Rubenstein believes photography is still an integral part of life, as we can capture art in an instant as photography is so widespread.
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