Historically there have aways been controversy regarding Image manipulation versus Straight Photography . Now that we have digital Imaging , new Paradigms are emerging . Image Composites , for example , seem closer to art creativity and craftsmanship definitions, than traditional photography ever was. What do you think?
Composite images are nothing new, given that people such as H.P. Robinson were combining negatives in a single print in the nineteenth century. Similarly, and as most people who have ever picked up a camera will know, the phrase "the camera never lies" couldn't be further from the truth. Seeing as painters were, in effect, compositing different views in a single image before the advent of photography, then, to my mind, digital technology is merely giving the photographer the same freedom as the artist to put in or take out of a composition what they want. The only point of contention, given the accepted, if misplaced, belief in the veracity of a photographic image, is to be honest about what is being done, especially if the image could be taken to have any evidential value. Seeing as, at best, any representational art only has to be plausible at best as opposed to exact, then providing such manipulation is not performed with the intent to deceive I see nothing wrong with it.
