Someday there may be invented a machine that needs but to be wound up an sent roaming o’er hill and dale, through fields and meadows, by babbling brooks and shady woods–in short, a machine that will discriminatingly select its subject and by means of a skillful arrangement of springs and screws, compose its motif, expose the plate, develop, print, and even mount and frame the result of its excursion, so that there will remain nothing for us to do but to send it to the Royal Photographic Society’s exhibition and gratefully to receive the “Royal Medal.”

Edward Steichen, Camera Work, No.1, January 1903, p.48-

via Ben Rains. thx, Jeff Weddell.

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3 Comments

  1. That’s actually very interesting; I never thought of it that way. But of course, the logical remedy to objections about too much “Photoshopping” and other manipulations is to get rid of all human involvement in the photographic process and let a machine do it all. Humans would have to agree on one standardized machine, and agree on where to put them first, but after that, the left brain could rest assured that all photos are being made in a pure, correct way.

  2. I think we are halfway there.

    1) take Google Street view – “a machine that needs but to be wound up an sent roaming o’er hill and dale, through fields and meadows, by babbling brooks and shady woods”

    2) Get someone to find the ‘art’ in the resulting images: AKA Michael Wolf:

    http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/street_view_unfortunate_events

    While he did not get Royal Photographic Society’s “Royal Medal”, he did get an “Honorable Mention” at the World Press Photo awards.

    So, we just the second part to be automated and Edward Steichen’s prophecy will have come true! And it only took a little over 100 years…

  3. Preach it, Brother Edward.


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