I didn't say exactly what I mean: of couse the pictures are real (how could a picture not be real?). But they do not pretend to show reality. For me (just for me!) this is not photography but painting by using the tools of photography.
No picture pretends to show reality.
... i don't think the genuine photograph thing is about representing reality (or pretending to do so).
It's about using photographic tools only.
Then you should perhaps remove all use of the term.
It is at the core of your statement: not manipulated.
And you do indeed try to 'define' it. You list what 'manipulations' are allowed without affecting the "genuine" status ("What are the tolerable postprocessing steps [...]"), and what would be too much.
Completely arbitrarily: what you do not define indeed is where exactly you draw the line, and - more importantly - how and why.
As it is, it would be impossible to know what a "genuine" photograph would be. Impossible to know when to use the label and/or why.
...i don't think the genuine photograph thing is about representing reality (or pretending to do so).
It's about using photographic tools only. It is flawed in that it sets a limit to what tools it deems worthy of the classification "photographic", and in that it does not recognize that the reason why it holds that some tools aren't permissible also applies to the tools it says are permissible.
... their "genuine photograph" is just another way of saying
a photograph made by... APUG? (Analog Photography User's Gear)
Since we are currently adding explanations to our website (mainly to avoid further discussions like this one),....
Jan
Since we are currently adding explanations to our website (mainly to avoid further discussions like this one)
Mark,
sorry, but you also did not get the point. We are not trying to create standards. We simply communicate how we work and why we have chosen to work like that. Your assumptions have no basis. And that´s exactly the reason why we are working on the mentioned explanations.
Regards,
Jan
Jan,
That is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Your trying to create credibility out of thin air.
If you spend time thinking about what you are allowed to do according to a set of "rules" - whether self generated or not- then I'd expect that focus to make your photography less interesting. Compliance is a poor substitute for imagination and doing what you need to do to get the results of that imagination down on paper.
I can assure you that this is not the case, since we did not post it in any other forum but apug yet.i'm pretty sure this is a big success in any german photo forums they might have posted this in.
Probably not. These rules would eliminate Andreas Gursky and other German photographers.
I'm still waiting for an answer. ....)
1. We do not judge whether anything is a genuine photograph or not. But we do define what a Genuine Photograph (when this expression is used in the context of our website) is, and use this expression for our pictures. No one is forced to do as we do. We also do say how WE understand photography (and later define this as Genuine Photography, see above). Again, no one is forced to share our opinion. Who still hasn´t got that point, should please reread our posts and our website.
2. As we pointed out before, it is not our intention to discredit any form of art or artistic technique. But it is indeed our intention to point out why we have chosen a special working method, and that this indeed makes a difference for us. Further explanations later.
The creation of our "rules" of course arouse from the fact, that we wanted to differentiate our working method - which to a big degree relies on photographic perception, a feeling for the moment and the ability to pre-visualize the final image, but mostly on the fact, that our photographs often show unique moments, conditions, scenes or whatever and are not conceptual work - from, for example, a postpro-orientated working method. [...]
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?