Unedited imperfection... but true...
The latest version of my iPhone software came with an upgrade to the camera. Evidently, I can now edit my pictures using an AI tool that removes all those imperfections spoiling the view. Never again need my snaps be sullied by unwanted road signs or errant clouds, let alone my fat thumb intruding on the lens.
It was fun to try this out, cleansing several images to create a reimagined perfection. And it’s scarily easy as well, taking mere seconds to achieve what would previously have required hours of skilled programming. Indeed, I’m old enough to have worked with design studios that used to physically airbrush photos!
Which should remind us that there’s always been an element of contrivance to photography. Just as photo journalists compose their shots to better tell a story, my phone is full of smiling portraits and carefully framed views from the hills and coasts where I roam. And as for seeking perfection, let’s be honest, who hasn’t said, ‘Oh delete that one, it makes me look old, silly, awful… (insert as appropriate)’
But the AI tool takes all this a stage further — enabling a quantum leap in artifice and self-deception. Which perhaps explains why, after the novelty wore off, I began to wonder if this is really how we want to remember our adventures? Surely, I reflected, the imperfections are part of our experience too, just as hiking is as much about sweating on the trail as the view from the summit.
Neuroscientists say the human brain is programmed to want to remember the good and the exceptional – but by polishing every flaw are we not also erasing an essential part of the truth?
None of which means we should scowl at the camera or care nothing for composition. The beauty of the landscape, the company of friends, our happening on an unforgettable vista – these are what make memories so vibrant. Which is why I prefer mine to be founded on fact not fantasy – for it seems to me, that a world in which everything was perfect, would actually be pretty dull.
Happy snapping, wherever you may wander.
It is a leap too far. I choose facts, like you.
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteYou are speaking to my heart! My father was a great amateur photgrapher, having his own dark room and letting me join him from the age of about nine or ten. I got my first camera for my eleventh birthday. Photography is an art form and there has always been manipulation of the film/negative/chemicals to create visual 'candy'. Which is great as long as it is remembered this is for the art - and not the deception. The current trend of cleaning up photos for perfection is not in the art category, it is in the deception category. The land of fantasy and wannabes.
Then there is the adage, "the camera never lies"... OMG............... we can go right back to the faeries in the garden fiasco for that one! .... YAM xx
Couldn't agree more. Sometimes that imperfection is the counterpoint that defines the beauty. In any event how should imperfection be defined? Surely, like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeletePerfection is overrated.
ReplyDelete