A common interpretation of both contemporary photography is that photography is in a transition period (eg.,drones, smartphones, webcam, Google Street View) and the significance of the emergence of digital technology in photography in the early 21st century is that it is best characterised as the
post-photographic . The term
post-photographic is too limited to make sense of 'photography in transition' as its central concern of the post photographic is primarily about the peril of manipulated appearances, even though manipulation has always been a common practice of the modern uses of photography.
The post-photographic interpretation holds that the analogue photographic image offered the promise of objective representation. It is then argued that this is the main reason why, for the better part of the last two centuries, analogue photography has been our most adequate instrument for documenting the world, its objects and ourselves. Photography's authority lay in its matter-of-factness; i.e., in the apparently privileged relationship between analogue photographs and the world.: ie., a photograph is the causal product of a
mechanical photo-chemical process, Photographic theory found in the notion of indexicality a way to preserve and defend the documental value of photographs.
However, the technological developments of the last two decades made possible the transformation of analogue photography into digital information whose images are not bound by physical constraints other than the capacity of a hard drive. Digital photographic images cannot be described as indexical sign, and given that the plausibility of photography as a document has always rested on its unique indexical relation to the world, its supplantation by images lacking this characteristic hinders photography's traditional authority.
On my last trip to Adelaide I decided to return to exploring the Port Adelaide region. As I was down that way to see the chiropet with Kayla, I decided to spend some time scoping around Garden Island area. It has been ages since I have been there, and I wanted to return to the ship graveyard that I photographed in the 1980s.
Most of the ships in the graveyard can only be accessed by kayak. I was in luck that day as I was able to access part of the ship graveyard due to the low tide. It was overcast, which is what I'd wanted for the photos.
What had changed? Surprisingly, not that much. The Sunbeam was still there, even if its hull was more decayed. The mangroves were heavily infested with mosquitos so I didn't hang around trying to see if I could access the other ships from the river bank.
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