This will always be controversial because of people's different
perceptions of photography and art, and the lack of universally
accepted definitions. When the same words are used and they mean
different things there will never be resolution.
Like most photographers I accept that there may be some manipulation
after the fact of tripping the shutter. However at some point it
ceases to be the art of photography and becomes art in which an image
is just an additional raw material. I am not sure when that happens.
As the old saying goes, " I know it when I see it". :-) Not really.
While it could be argued that zapping the background in a digital
macro shot is digital art, not photography, it gets to be a bit
difficult to tell the philosophical difference from a portable
background traditionally carried to the field to artificially isolate
a macro subject.
I tend to be more of a purist and like photographs to be reasonably
rooted in reality. I absolutely hate those lurid, hackneyed
seascapes with low lying fog instead of waves, creeks with flowing
snow instead of water, brightly lit landscapes with all reflection
removed with a polarizer and skies the color you would observe near
outer space. However if these photographic things that I don't like
can be manipulated further and become interesting works of art for,
say, a cover on a science fiction novel, great. Flowers isolated
from the background tend to be a more formal kind of photograph and
the flower in its environment less so and more of a found object.
Different people like different things and long live the differences.
I think linking photography to ethics is ridiculous in the kind of
photography most of us do. If photography is used in deception, the
ethics has to do with the severity and importance of the deception.
It is the enormity of the lie and the reason for it that is
unethical, not the photograph. We all tell white lies. :-)
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California
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