Michael Lang
Professor Andreas Rentsch
ARS 281
4/3/2017
                                                            Blog #5 Fred Ritchin's After Photography
      Fred Ritchin's After Photography is a book about how digital photography has changed the way people look at photographs and news. Fred Ritchin, the dean for the International Center of Photography, made this book to in order to increase awareness about digital photography and what it means today. Fred Ritchin argues that digital photography has changed the way people people view photos, news and images online. Fred Ritchin uses a number of examples in his book as well as images to prove this. Digital photography has both positive and negative sides.
     The digital age allows people to use their imagination and create wonderful and creative images. The digital ages also allows people to fix their images up in order to make them look better. People with cellphones can now take pictures everywhere they go and these people can help add images during an event or they can get inspired to take more pictures. Sadly the digital ages has increased the chance for false images to appear. The digital age allows people to manipulate images and change them.
     Because of this, images can no longer be trusted 100% of the time. Faked or slightly manipulated images can cause issues and anger. If a photograph taken during a serious even, like a war for example, is changed in a way that starts controversy it can cause outrage, backlash and it can put peoples lives at risk. It can be hard to tell if a image is pure or if it has been manipulated or distorted. In After Photography the author tries to provide ways to authenticate images and make good use of this new age of photography.
     He also talks about how the digital age can provide greatness and reality in a blurry and manipulated world where one must always be careful when it comes to images. This was an interesting read filled with not just great writing but also photographs that prove Fred Ritchin's points. His book provide the reader with not just information, but solutions and questions for the future of photography. Here are some interesting quotes from the article.
     "reality has no single truth." This line is very true today. With so many points of view and possible ways to manipulate evidence, it can be hard to find a single truth or hard fact. Some of the images used in the article prove this.
     "If the reader clicked on the man doing the shooting, he or she could find out that he later opened a pizzeria." While this was on the sidelines of the article and it was in smaller print, this line was very informative and interesting. Many have seen this infamous image from the Vietnam War but many know little about the man pulling the trigger or the aftermath of the execution. To learn that the man with the gun ended up running a pizzeria crates a bigger and more interesting story.
     "Photography, rather than reacting to apocalypse can now try to help us avoid them." This quote along with the line before it shows one of the important and positive ways digital photography can be used. Digital photography can be used in very positive and meaningful hands and it can be a useful scientific tool.