Revelations.
throughout the history of Photography, scientific discovery has always played a big role. Particularly in more recent years, photographers methods for producing images has evolved as technology has advanced. In the exhibition 'Revelations,' held at the science museum in London, a selection of images by a range of different photographers were displayed that illustrated the ways in which photography and the scientific world have been bound over history. Being a scientific process itself, the photograph has been involved in many scientific experiments, often revealing minute and otherwise unseen aspects of our world that cannot be seen with the naked eye by capturing the light they give off. For example, the exhibition held images that depicted Nebulae shown at different exposure times, each one revealing more about this distant and unreachable environment. Some explored the effects of three dimensional photography of the moon, making this, then impervious, world more visceral. Many of the photographers also explored the effects of light, being the element that is most vital in the creation of the photograph, and its effects when in conjunction with photographic paper. Some photographers set light charges over photographic plates. This meant that they could see the real shape of the electrical charge, turning it into something tangible. This is a perfect example of how science can be used to make the unfathomable real when it is combined with the photographic medium.
One of the most impactful images was that of a series of water droplets taken over time entitled the 'life of a water drop'. These images took extremely high definition renditions of a water droplet as a means of calculating the shutter speed time on a camera, inadvertently recreating each step of movement in the water's movement. These images were then ordered so that the viewer could see movement in the images, and labelled as a scientific experiment. These images where particularly poignant as they took the beautiful shapes created by this split second movement sand made them solid. Individual. This just goes to show the extent to what can be missed by the human eye, and therefore demonstrates the necessity to capture and examine.
Yet another impactful image was a large print picture was taken by exposing photographic paper, in a totally blackened room, to gunfire. The sparks that came of the revolver used then made an imprint as the light was captured on the paper, meaning subject and photographic method were the same thing. What was particular;y fascinating about this image was that it was incredibly beautiful, at first glance looking like another image of space. The abrupt contrast in violent subtext of the weapon used and the graceful movement and colour of the image, highlighted very extremely the unnerving combination of beauty and violence that comes with destruction, again capturing a moment that would have otherwise been missed.
This is particularly relevant to the work because it highlights the unobserved and unnoticed, subverting the viewer's natural expectation so that they themselves can examine how they feel about the subjects shown. The experimentation with photographic processes is also highly poignant as it demonstrates not only the so often forgotten individual reality of an image due to the so frequently used digital medium, but also the ways in which unseen aspects of life can be generated and manipulated to create something other, yet equally real.
throughout the history of Photography, scientific discovery has always played a big role. Particularly in more recent years, photographers methods for producing images has evolved as technology has advanced. In the exhibition 'Revelations,' held at the science museum in London, a selection of images by a range of different photographers were displayed that illustrated the ways in which photography and the scientific world have been bound over history. Being a scientific process itself, the photograph has been involved in many scientific experiments, often revealing minute and otherwise unseen aspects of our world that cannot be seen with the naked eye by capturing the light they give off. For example, the exhibition held images that depicted Nebulae shown at different exposure times, each one revealing more about this distant and unreachable environment. Some explored the effects of three dimensional photography of the moon, making this, then impervious, world more visceral. Many of the photographers also explored the effects of light, being the element that is most vital in the creation of the photograph, and its effects when in conjunction with photographic paper. Some photographers set light charges over photographic plates. This meant that they could see the real shape of the electrical charge, turning it into something tangible. This is a perfect example of how science can be used to make the unfathomable real when it is combined with the photographic medium.
One of the most impactful images was that of a series of water droplets taken over time entitled the 'life of a water drop'. These images took extremely high definition renditions of a water droplet as a means of calculating the shutter speed time on a camera, inadvertently recreating each step of movement in the water's movement. These images were then ordered so that the viewer could see movement in the images, and labelled as a scientific experiment. These images where particularly poignant as they took the beautiful shapes created by this split second movement sand made them solid. Individual. This just goes to show the extent to what can be missed by the human eye, and therefore demonstrates the necessity to capture and examine.
Yet another impactful image was a large print picture was taken by exposing photographic paper, in a totally blackened room, to gunfire. The sparks that came of the revolver used then made an imprint as the light was captured on the paper, meaning subject and photographic method were the same thing. What was particular;y fascinating about this image was that it was incredibly beautiful, at first glance looking like another image of space. The abrupt contrast in violent subtext of the weapon used and the graceful movement and colour of the image, highlighted very extremely the unnerving combination of beauty and violence that comes with destruction, again capturing a moment that would have otherwise been missed.
This is particularly relevant to the work because it highlights the unobserved and unnoticed, subverting the viewer's natural expectation so that they themselves can examine how they feel about the subjects shown. The experimentation with photographic processes is also highly poignant as it demonstrates not only the so often forgotten individual reality of an image due to the so frequently used digital medium, but also the ways in which unseen aspects of life can be generated and manipulated to create something other, yet equally real.