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Pedro Meyer is not the only artist exploring the "Brave New World of digital truth," but he's certainly the first traditional documentary photographer to go so far out on a limb. This is an important work. At the opening of the Truths & Fictions exhibit in Riverside,California, we scrutinized each mesmerizing photograph, looked to see if the caption said "digitally altered" (which it did more often than not), then struggled to figure out where photographic reality left off and digital image kicked in. When we got our hands on the CD-ROM, we dutifully revisited the exhibit in the virtual "Gallery." Then, like children rifling a magician's pockets, we jumped to the Digital Studio section to see how, and why, the composite images were created. (Only twenty are featured in this way, alas.) Not until Meyer's revealing narrative (available in both English and Spanish) had sunk in a bit did we stop to consider some of the larger issues. Remember when photographs emerged from trays of photochemicals? When their role (think of the family album) was to document events? "Photographic reality is an expression that has defined our notion of visual truth," Jonathan Green, Director of the California Museum of Photography, points out in his introduction. "Pedro Meyer's new digital photos call into question this century-old concept." Even Meyer's unaltered images deliberately juxtapose bizarre elements and pose unsettling questions about race, religion, and commercialism. Meyer's inquiry doesn't stop with basic issues of photographic re-presentation. In the Correspondence section he turns our computer screen into a forum in which creative people from eighteen countries discuss the cultural implications of the digital revolution. The responses are marvelously varied--in format, frame of reference, and attitude. Some people clutch their Olivettis and quake, while others embrace the new freedom. Our favorite comment was from Sylvia Stevens: "Form and content always take awhile to get to know each other. Courtships in any form are important." That this pioneering work is sparking international debate about the cultural implications of the digital revolution comes as no surprise. |
