maandag 16 december 2013

VSCO Cam - The new hipster App

VSCO Cam is an App that lets you 'fade' pictures, make them look more arty. First, no one knew the app and only few people used it to make their pictures different from others. But now, it has been a revolution almost. Some one once started it, and now the hipster-photographers can't live without it anymore. How come? No one knows for sure. But probably the 'originality' caused more and more people to want to use this app. Now, it is just as popular and unoriginal as all the Instagram features.

Before:                            With VSCO Cam: 
                          


 Before:                          With VSCO Cam                   



Other Examples of Pictures I took and used the VSCO Cam App on (really, there is almost no difference. Every picture has the same style... Reality? Maybe. My own Utopia? No.):












Instagram - the hype

How we make our own perfect world: 

1. Sun! Prefect example. By putting a filter on this picture, it immediately seems less grey and depressing. But is this reality? Or are we cheating on it? Because if the world always looked like the second photo, it would be a much more colorful place. But it doesn't. So reality is altered here, again.



2. Cat pictures - all time favorite. Because they are so cute. And because your own cat is the best. Not the cat of the neighbors, the street cat in your town or your grandma's 15 cats. No. Your cat is the cutest, and you have to show that. Another example of going with the hype. Cat pictures are a hype, everyone goes with it these days. So we do the same. Is this creating our own world then? Not in my opinion.



3.Positioning all your favorite items in the picture in a way, everything seems perfectly in place. Of course, the viewer has to think this is all on accident. Never let him believe you planted everything just right for the picture..



4. The classic switch to black/white



5. Most female bloggers love to show their beauty products. By placing them all symmetric, giving the picture the right filter and choosing a good surface, the products immediately look more appealing. But is this your 'own' creation? No. 'Cause 10.000 others are doing it with you. Maybe not the same products, filter and stuff. But the idea is the same. Making reality look more beautiful, just like everyone does...



6.Food-pictures. All-time favorite and not very original. Nowadays, everyone takes pictures of their food. Sandwiches (yes, I am a sinner too), spagetthi, pizza, healthy superfood.



So, Instagram is awesome. Everyone thinks that. It's users are well aware of the fact that they are making their pictures look more appealing to the public. Maybe to get more likes, or maybe because otherwise their lives would just be too boring. So is it we're cheating on reality or do we just want to add more color, spice, fun and beauty to our 'reality' to make us feel better?

Creating our 'own' Utopia.. what?

After attending the lecture of Bruce Gray about the history of the photographic image and reading the article "The Ontology of the Photographic Image" by André Bazin, I immediately came up with an idea for my creative assignment.
Nowadays, everyone takes pictures. Is it of your dog, your food (very popular), your house, yourself while you're sleeping (actually you're not sleeping, because you are taking the picture, you just wánt to make everyone think you're sleeping... silly you). Imagine the craziest things, people take pictures of it.
It all began with the invention of the Camera Obscura (Bazin 1960). It was the first time people saw an in illusion of an 3D-space in which things seemed to exist the same way we see them with our own eyes (Bazin). People seemed to develop an obsession with realism. Art has always been the one way to reproduce an image and make it last. Paintings could ‘capture’ a moment, but always with the interference of the creativity of mankind. With photography, this was no longer an issue. The lens captured the moment just as it was. Nothing could get closer to reality as Photography could and it seemed to satisfy the longing of gaining reality in durable objects (Bazin).

My question is: with over more than 50 years of developing, is Photography still as how André Bazin explains it? I think not.
We take pictures of every day happenings. We take pictures on any moment of the day (or night). We take pictures of everything, everywhere, on every moment. But what makes our picture, the one we took of the one particular thing, so special?
Not the ‘reality’ it expresses. We have long got used to the fact that photographs and videos capture objects in their most realistic state. It is not the urge to get as close as possible to the realistic object with our replication that we have.

It is something else we seek to achieve. We want to create our own reality, our own perfect world with our pictures. Our own Utopia. It is not the reality we are looking for in that one photograph, but we are seeking the possibilities there are to alter a picture in a way it looks more beautiful, peaceful, ‘hipster’, arty or professional.
With apps like Instagram, VSCO Cam, Afterlight and so on, it is possible for us to create an own, better (or perhaps even perfect) reality within our photos. These apps offer us the ability to put filters on the pictures to make them look arty, sunny, funnier and more professional. Adding text to them, giving them a natural ‘glow’ and choosing different frames is changing photos in a way we want them to.
But how close is this to reality any more? Is it even possible to still call it reality?

For the creators, it is a way of showing their creativity. At least, the like t believe it is. Because once you finished altering your picture, you have the possibility to ‘share’ it with your friends. On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Your friends on the other hand have the ability to ‘like’ your picture.
But is it really showing your creativity? How original are you, if you use these apps with thousands, no millions of others, only to choose from a limited amount of frames, colors and filters? The question is, is it really your own utopia you’re creating, or are you just following the hype? I guess we might never know this. One person is convinced he is making his own creations, totally different from the rest, being original as he goes. The other person thinks, maybe even realizes, that he is just as the rest of us. Just taking pictures of things he likes, putting frames and filters on it to make it look more pretty.
The one thing I know for sure is that reality is not the issue here anymore. Is it not the goal with the photographs to achieve the most realistic reproduction of an object, like André Bazin once stated.


On this photo blog I want to show you how easy it is to change pictures. To make them your “own” pictures. Your “own” perfect reality. Utopia. Or is it your own?

Literature:

Bazin, Andre, and Hugh Gray. “The Ontology of the Photographic Image.” Film Quarterly 13.4 (Summer 1960): 4-9.