Magic and Time Machine

[cliveh]

May I drop this question into the APUG pond? Is the photographic process the nearest we get to magic? And Is a camera the nearest thing we get to a time machine?

 

[Dennis S]

As you can see in my signature that you can stop time with a camera ;-)

 

[zsas]

I think there is some truth there.

Love this one:
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
Dorothea Lange

 

[cliveh]

I think there is some truth there.

Love this one:
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
Dorothea Lange

In my book, Dorothea Lange is in the top 10 photographers of all time. She had an intuitive sense of composition.

 

[blansky]

May I drop this question into the APUG pond? Is the photographic process the nearest we get to magic? And Is a camera the nearest thing we get to a time machine?

Absolutely on both counts.

I've always considered photography a magical process (including digital especially with photoshop) and have always stated that photography is the only thing we have that can stop time.

Nothing we have in life, outside the miracle of birth, is more of a magical process than photography.

 

[holmburgers]

Allow me to protrude the placid surface of your pond... I would argue that holography is perhaps more "magical" than photography.

It captures an object in 3 dimensions, without a camera and stops time.

In its silver halide emulsion it records phase differences, as opposed to mere amplitude differences.

 

[Jim Jones]

Much new technology would seem like magic to older generations. Consider computers. When I started a career in electronics, the slide rule was the most commonly used computer. For some calculations we used math tables. In the 1950s I helped maintain a computer that had one transister and thousands of vacuum tubes. The clock rate was 100kHz and its memory was almost nonexistant. It never occured to me that I would ever see personal computers, let alone the handheld electronic devices of today. As a boy I built radios that let me eavesdrop on the World. To talk to neighbors we used a wall mounted party line telephone. Now we have cell phones. The Mount Palomar telescope was one of the marvels of the time. Now we have telescopes in space. Space travel had been a subect for fantasies for a few hundred years, but most people probably didn't see any reason for it to be developed. Organ transplants were unheard of except for Doctor Brinkley in Kansas. I grew up on a farm with little powered machinery. My parents were born before powered flight and practical automobiles. Photography is merely a technical advance in the visual arts like the word processor and print-on-demand are to literature.

 

[jp498]

I think flying is more magical than a photographic image. Then computers (and their networks) are more magic than a photo image; immense information moving around the world at the speed of light for very little cost is pure magic.

A camera is definitely a time machine.

 

[holmburgers]

Much new technology would seem like magic to older generations...

+1

Very well put.

 

[X. Phot.]

No, photography is not magic, and a camera is not a time machine. But should these hallucinations continue, I would suggest that a friend help you check into a local Rehab clinic . . . or find a new supplier.

 

[removed account4]

yes ...
what michael said ...

 

[Dinesh]

Nothing we have in life, outside the miracle of birth, is more of a magical process than photography.

What about overtime in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals?

 

[MaximusM3]

What about overtime in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals?

I was thinking MJ's shot over Craig Helo but I feel dirty and shallow now.
Then again, after much thought, I think I cracked it...it makes money disappear real good and fast. Magic!

 

[cliveh]

I think a print emerging in the developer is the nearest you get to magic and some of my 16 year old students think film photography is cool.

 

[MDR]

Photography and movies are like magic and I would call photography a memory machine instead of time machine. I agree with Blansky it's the only medium that can freeze time.

Dominik

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Photography, a process that can perpetuate both truths and lies for generations. Quite a magical and scary machine to use, with viewers hoping there is a contextual guide there with them to separate truths.

 

[Vaughn]

The magic is in the doing, not so much in the process.

 

[perkeleellinen]

First time I saw a print develop in the darkroom and the first time I saw a Polaroid develop both seemed like magic.