"Fine Adventures: A Look at Pedro Meyer"

As we have seen in my previous blog entries, such as the entry discussing the work of Galen Rowell, many artists are now "embracing digital technologies in an effort to further realize their artistic goals." Pedro Meyer is another such photographer who is taking advantage of these new opportunities in photography. According William R. Terrell in an article entitled, "Fine Adventures: A Look at Pedro Meyer," Pedro Meyer is "one of the foremost straight photographers the now works digitally." Since the early 1980s, Meyer has worked as a documentary photographer, however, when new digital technologies became available to him, he began completing works primarily through a digital darkroom. Thus, Meyer's more recent photographs combine "the best of both film and digital elements, [and] through this unison, [he] creates images of paradoxical beauty that examines the complicated cultures of America and Mexico." Meyer shares these digital photographs and his "journey from documentary to digital photography," in his book, Truths & Fictions, the cover of which appears above.
To create a context for his discussion on Meyer, author William Terrell first discusses the idea of photographic truth as it relates to digital imaging. Again, we see here an argument which is strikingly similar to my own thesis on photographic truth. Terrell states that the debate of photographic truth now revolves around the idea of "whether digitally manipulated imagery eliminates 'truth' within a photograph. This concern is understandable considering that photography has been most commonly used as a recording device since its inception." However, the author claims that the debate over whether or not digital images eliminate truth is essentially a futile argument due to the fact that "photography has been a manipulated medium since its inception, whether it through cropping, angle of approach, sandwiched negatives, retouching, chemical alterations, or any number of other secret photography techniques employed for more than 150 years." So, again and again we come across the idea that manipulation and subjectivity are an inherent part of photography itself. These elements of manipulation were not brought about by digital imaging, but were present in traditional photography all along. Therefore, the problem of photographic truth can be applied to all photographs, digital and traditional.
In a statement similar to that which Galen Rowell made in the article "World's Best Prints," Terrell claims that "the computer has allowed Meyer to construct realities that are more truthful to what he remembers than to what may or may not have been there." So, here again we can see the paradox of digital imagery, in that while digital technologies are giving the photographer more tools for manipulation, they are at the same time, allowing the photographer to more accurately capture what he or she saw in front of the camera.

On another note relating to Pedro Meyer's photography, I highly suggest checking out his digital works, a few of which can be seen at Zone Zero, from Analog to Digital. On this site, Meyer shares a collection of photos that he entitles "The Camera's Brushes." These are beautiful, thought-provoking photos that are altered or manipulated to create the effect of paint merging with photography. It is this connection or merging of photography and painting that is made possible by digital technologies that has caught my attention in several of my research articles. I have become fascinated with the way elements of painting have become such a huge part of the digital aesthetic. It is as if technological advancements are simultaneously allow us to move forward artistically, while at the same time allowing us to return to our traditional roots of painting. In other words, digital technologies are not only giving us opportunities for new growth, but they are also allowing us to remediate traditional forms of media in a way that we could never imagine.