Brooke Shaden

Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message”. The truth to that statement is so embedded in our experiences that we fail to consciously assess the role that the medium plays in our interaction. In the example of photography, there are many mediums aside from the actual photograph. A photographer takes a photo with a camera, might use an editing program to edit the photo, and then will choose to publish that photo online or in print. Each of these steps represent a medium that has influenced the final product. The message, or the concept, of the photo is not only influenced by what camera was used or how the photo was edited (or not edited), but also by the context in which the photo is viewed. The photo sharing website Flickr frames each photo with the understanding that the photo will be viewed publicly by internet viewers and that the photographer is inviting comments and critiques.

The people who use flickr put their photos forward to engage in a global conversation about photography, to interact with other photographers and look at photographs. The medium is flickr, and the message is that every photo made public is open for review and critique. I myself upload photographs to flickr with the intention of creating a dialogue with other photographers.  Because my photos are somewhat disturbing at times, the comments that I have recieved are not always praise. I offended and distrubed quite a few flickr users in the procses of creating and posting my photos online largely because of the concepts behind my photos.  So when I came across a group titled “Conceptual Photography”, I joined because I could identify with the group. My photos are surely conceptual, as each one is based on a story or strong sentiment.

To my dismay, a flickr user named Seanorr started a thread in that group titled “Photoshop is not a concept”. His sentiment was quite clear. Seanorr believes that anyone using photoshop to alter their photos does not fit into the category of conceptual photographer. He said in his initial post, “Any photo that is pretty, or has been made into art via Photoshop, is not a conceptual photograph. A conceptual photograph is one where the immediate is not instantly known, where the idea of the picture, why the photographer chose that subject, is more important than the object.”

The very subject line of his post is not only narrow-minded, but it addresses an impossible situation. Seanorr says, “Photoshop is not a concept”, and I wholeheartedly agree. Photoshop is a medium which aids in conveying a message. Photoshop itself can never and will never be a concept, just as a camera is not a concept. Therefore the issue is not whether photoshop is a concept, or whether a camera is a concept (or any other form of expression is a concept), but rather if the editing of a photo removes the concept behind the image.

Let us look at my image titled “Hunt”, in which I portray a human hung over a mantle as to resemble a dead deer. The concept of this image is clear: if we can kill animals as trophies, why not humans? Or vice versa, if we look down upon killing humans, why can we kill animals and consider them trophies? Certainly this concept could have been created without using photoshop or some other editing tool.  However, I think that the image gains a certain power by being so unmistakably blunt in its concept. The photoshopping used to create the image only enhances the concept that I was aiming to get across to the viewer. The fact that my body is dismembered creates a shock value that might otherwise be missing without photoshop. The shock is just as much a part of the picture as anything else.

The energy that the photo has is created from the extensive editing work invovled. It stems from knowing that we would never see this image in “real life”, and yet there it is, right in front of us. Photoshop allows the impossible to become possible. The photo “Hunt” forces us to bluntly face a fear, which is what I hope that all of my photography does. The fact that photoshop was used extensively to create the end result does not in any way detract from the concept; alternately, photoshop enhances the concept and brings the image to a level otherwise unnattainable.

“The medium is the message” because the medium frames what we are seeing. The very fact that my photos are obviously photoshopped clues the viewer in to an alternate reality, a realm where the “the idea of the picture…is more important than the object”, or rather, the idea of the picture is more important than the photoshopping involved. Photoshop is not a concept, the camera is not a concept, the photographer is not a concept, and flickr is not a concept. But all of those things create the concept.