Digital Landscape
Carr Clifton says some viewers decry any digital retouching of an image, but he’s quick to point out it has been always done. And since it’s all in the service of a creative vision, there is no right-and-wrong rule book.
“Some people complain: ‘Oh, you’re digitizing and manipulating,’” he says. “Well, it’s just an artistic expression. Now we can be even more an artist. You have more tools and creativity at your hands. It’s phenomenal.”
Take cleaning image of an errant pinecone, for example. Clifton explains that he does the same thing in the computer that he’s always done with film. “We used to digitally remove them anyway with digits on our hands,: he explains. “Grab that pinecone and throw it out of the scene. People pretend ‘Oh, I didn’t touch a thing.’ But I don’t know. Moving the camera is manipulation. Move a little to the left or right… So taking garbage out of the picture? Absolutely. Taking a jet trail out of the sky? Absolutely. Taking the dirt off it? Absolutely. Moving a person into the image. I haven’t done that. I haven’t moved a sky into the image either. I’d love to do that with some photos, but I haven’t done it yet. Pretty soon, nobody will even care. It won’t even be an issue. It’s all part of the creative process.
“I think it’s like writing,” Clifton continues. “You have fiction and you have nonfiction. And you believe the person who writes a nonfiction novel – that it’s true. You know the fiction writer made it all up. It’s the same thing. We trust news to have total truth in that newspaper; they don’t make that story up. This is creative endeavor. People can do whatever they want. If they want to change the color or put a bird in a sky, they can do it. There’s nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned. It’s just who wants to do it. I don’t care to, but if they care to, that’s their own business. As long as they’re not saying it’s nonfiction. If they’re claiming that this is true nature in their image, well that’s one thing.
“It’s like writing a story,” he adds. “You could have 10 people see something happen and then they all write a story about what happened. Well, it’s all nonfiction, but people have accentuated certain things that happened – they each saw it from a different angle. It’s the same thing with photography – like when you make a print. You’re going to tell the story, and you’re going to put certain things in parentheses and you’re going to capitalize certain things. It still tells the truth!”
From interview with Carr Clifton by William Sawalich