As one who has photographed on film for many years and now uses film and digital,I have a lot of sympathy with the views of Don McCullin (Report, 28 November). While your correspondent Tony Moon (Letters, and 1 December) is right in saying that pictures have been created from multiple exposures since Victorian times,the ease with which this can be done nowadays creates many problems in all fields of documentary photography. In my own specialist field of nature photography the relentless quest for exhibition success – where the objective used to be the production of images of significance to the naturalist – has led many people to assemble images that are not real to nature.
The situation became so ghastly that the Photographic Society of America produced a definition of nature photography which must be adopted by any international exhibition wishing to receive PSA patronage. It has been endorsed by the Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique and the Royal Photographic Society. Don McCullin is right to say that images can no longer be trusted. whether it looks too good to be real it probably is.
Tony Bond
Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, Leigh, or LancashireContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com