Fix

Re-post from Facebook, Dec. 3, 2010:

Fix

To "fix" a photo has different meanings. When we still operated in darkrooms we would use fixatives to stop the paper from further developing, we would “fix” the image to the paper.

We also get rid of problems, we edit and repair and clean and touch up. We fix things. Photographs are an imperfect documentation of reality, distorted by the subjective view of the photographer. Regardless of intent they ascribe their own beliefs and understandings, their own vantage points, to the work. They choose, cut, crop, and decide from the beginning at what they point their lens. This idea is nothing new or unique, many have spent decades addressing it, such as artist and writer Allan Sekula, along with any number of art critics.

The photograph does and doesn't lie, it is high art and the basest form of art. Even in hard journalism we “clean” and correct, or outright mislead. The famous photo of the Kent state killings exists in two forms, one of which shows a poll behind a crying woman, bisecting her head. In the other, it has been removed for simple aesthetic reasons. To speak contemporarily, Reuters released an obviously doctored image of smoke over an Iraqi city, in another missiles are duplicated. There are questions about placing objects in situ and using what accounts to models to add planned grief and humanity to war photos. Most recently they came under attack for selectively cropping images released involving the Gaza flotilla, drastically changing the message and impact. Cropping is understood to be almost negligible as far as photo editing is concerned, but can have a profound affect on image. A photo represents a reality, it is a document, a moment in time, and here we are fixing our photos. Fixing reality.

There is another definition of “fix” that I did not mention before. When an athlete cheats a race, or an accountant fudges the numbers, they are “fixing” the results. A fixed race is one with predictable and exploited outcomes.

Photography, you see, is almost inherently a fixed result.