The Development of Photography in the New Communication Environment

The Development of Photography in the New Communication Environment

Under the new communication environment dominated by digital technology and internet media, the creative mode, communication mode, aesthetic mode and reading mode of photography have all undergone fundamental changes. First, photography culture has really entered the era of mass communication; second, the creative concept and techniques of photography have been greatly expanded; third, the characteristics of photography communication methods and forms tend to be civilian and popular.

Digital technology; Networking; Photography culture; Photography creation; Photographic communication

With the rapid development of digital technology, emerging media such as blogs, mobile newspapers and e-books have gradually surpassed traditional media such as newspapers, books, television and radio with the help of the development of the Internet, forming a new communication environment. As an important medium of media communication, photography has been developed under the impetus of digital technology and internet technology. In the new communication environment, more and more digital images are spread to the Internet. They are published, reprinted and collected through new communication tools such as blogs, online forums and electronic photo albums. In this process, the public has become not only the receiver of images, but also the publisher, discussant and collector of images. This kind of media supported by digital technology and internet technology gives the public equal right to speak. Emerging media has revolutionized the form of image generation, the way of image transmission, the way of image viewing and interpretation, promoted the change of photography culture and influenced people's lifestyle and value orientation.

First, the transformation of photography culture in the new communication environment

With the popularization of digital technology and Internet, human cultural life tends to be "decentralized". Under this influence, photography has undergone profound changes, not only the photography behavior has been greatly democratized, but also the elite characteristics of traditional photography culture have been dispelled, photography has become a popular entertainment way, and photography art has also moved from ivory tower to folk. The appearance of digital photography has changed the production mode, aesthetic style and viewing mode of photography. The collection and dissemination of digital photography technology is easier to master than traditional photography technology, and its entertainment, randomness and convenience are becoming more and more obvious. Photography has become a convenient and delicious fast food and photography culture has become a fast food culture. Digital technology pushes photography to democracy through photographic equipment, picture storage, digital image processing software and transmission equipment; Digitalization has changed the way of image generation. Through digital post-processing technology, the image is copied, modified, collaged, combined and creative, which brings infinite possibilities for photography creation. The digitalization of network has changed the way of photography communication, and the way of image production, transmission and viewing has been replaced by digital technology and the Internet. In the new communication environment, mass photography culture has become the mainstream photography culture. In the era of "everyone can be a photographer", photography has become a way of life for the public.

Digital technology has also brought changes to the traditional photography art, how to embody your own style and express your own characteristics in the era of image flooding? Photographers have to think about what the true meaning of photography art is. The traditional photography art, which mainly reflects the objective world in the form of records, has been unable to adapt to the trend of diversified development of photography culture, forcing artists to pay more attention to human emotional existence than objective existence from the subjective consciousness. Artistic creativity is regarded as an important symbol of photography vitality. For photography, competition with painting means that originality is an important criterion for evaluating photographers' works, so originality is also equivalent to a unique, convincing and sensitive symbol. [1] In this era of mass photography, the development of science and technology has made photography a medium of mass expression, and innovation has become a feature of mass photography culture. The combination of innovation and popularization of photography art is a major trend in the development of photography art at present.

Second, the expansion of photography creation in the new communication environment

The integration of digital technology and internet technology has formed a new communication environment, changed human culture and living space, and affected people's living conditions. There is no doubt that digital technology has created infinite diversity and possibilities for photographic creation. The development of digital technology has brought about the upgrading of photographic equipment and the change of the concept of photography art, and the traditional photography habits, photography methods, communication methods and viewing methods have been shaken, followed by fundamental changes in the expression language, creative ideas, creative techniques and interpretation methods of photography art.

1. "Digital Montage": Drawing images by computer.

The biggest change brought by the rapid development of digital technology to photography creation is that the post-processing of images has moved from darkroom to bright room. Digital image processing technology has changed the form of photography, shaken the traditional attributes of photography and greatly expanded the space of photography creation. At the beginning of photography, photographers used darkroom technology to collage photographic images. Relander, known as the father of artistic photography, borrowed the composition of Raphael's Academy of Athens and printed 32 original versions into Two Roads of Life, which is an important work of early photo photography and the earliest application of montage. "The image in the photo and the image on the canvas can communicate with each other quickly, and all new means are used: free movement, displacement, deformation, imitation, camouflage, copying, overlapping and special effects in the photo. It is new to substitute body double for other people's image and steal the column. Its flexibility and recklessness are pleasant. " [2] Today's digital images no longer need photographers to grope for experimental montage photos in darkrooms, but only need photographers to use digital image processing software to realize their unconstrained ideas. "Digital montage" is the most commonly used means for image creators to process images and complete image production. It is the extension of traditional darkroom montage technology and the product of digital technology. "Digital montage" reorganizes, collages and modifies the image material through digital image processing technology, and finally completes the photographer's creation.

"In the era of digital images, the ways to obtain images are expanded into three categories: a. The objects in front of the camera. B. Synthesize different scenes shot by the camera in the computer to generate a brand-new object with visual realism. C. The scene is completely created by computer software, or the scene generated by software can be combined with the scene shot by the camera to form a new object image. " [3] "Digital montage" not only re-synthesizes image materials to create brand-new images, but also includes virtual images directly created by dynamic and static, two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital image software. Miao is undoubtedly a pioneer in the technological revolution from traditional photography to digital photography. In Miao's video work "Virtual Last Judgment", he replaced more than 400 characters in Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" with his own image, created a digital model, transformed two-dimensional paintings in the history of art into virtual three-dimensional scenes, and then made "still photos" or "dynamic images" with virtual cameras and camcorders in the computer, and then rendered them and printed them out. Miao's video works have opened up a new virtual world, which not only changed the traditional way of expression and viewing, but also brought brand-new interpretation and significance to famous works in art history.

2. Digital image art and other art categories cross the border.

The development period of digital technology is a period of post-modern culture prosperity and development. Like other art categories, digital image art presents colorful scenes. It not only has many different styles of expression, but also has a single limitation in creative methods. It is integrated with other media, and gradually develops from the traditional social record of photography to the image that artists need to express their personal thoughts and feelings, express their individuality and spread to the public. Especially with the development of digital technology and the improvement of camera automation, any artist can master this technology in a short time. Coupled with the recording nature of photography itself, photography is regarded as a creative medium used by artists like pigments and pencils, and naturally becomes one of the means of expression used by other artists to create. In artistic photography, photography is related to the creative activities of performance art and installation art that most contemporary artists are engaged in, resulting in artistic photography styles such as performance photography and installation photography. In fact, photography not only has the recording attribute, but also can best express its artistic attribute. When images are used as recording media, photography artists are also considering how to upgrade photography from recording tools to expression means. Digital imaging technology and post-modern cultural thoughts provide space for the development of photographic performance attributes. First of all, digital imaging technology provides technical support for it; Secondly, the communication between photography art and other art categories has cultivated artistic soil for it. Photography in the new communication environment has broken through the traditional concept of photography, and photography has evolved from "taking pictures" to "creating pictures" and then to an imaginary "virtual picture". [4] The development of digital technology provides photographers with a broader creative space, but it also creates an illusory sense of virtual reality. The combination of postmodern photography and other art media promoted the expansion of photography creation means and brought the development of artistic photography.