Festival de la Imagen - ISEA2017

Etymologically, photography can be understood as an image painted with light, but in a more complex view, its definition has evolved from the analog processes used since its early days to the digital practices we witness today. Industrialization and new technologies applied to visual arts have affected the way people see these practices, have changed its values and pushed its boundaries, forcing artists and amateur performers to reevaluate the limits and possibilities of their disciplines to approach new territories through innovation and exploration. This paper is intended to make a brief description of the evolutional process of photography from a historical and technical view, and the transformation of this concept, from the early analog cameras and systems in the 19th century to the digital advances in the 21st century, analyzing the idea of visual manipulation, as an inherent activity to the different cameras and technologies, based on the definition of photography as a form of art. Supported by the case of the Bang Bang Club and the artwork of Kevin Carter, this reflection analyzes different forms of visual manipulation, not intended as an ethical judgment, but as recognition of a constant phenomenon through the history of this practice.