Well, at least that’s what a lot of people think. During
exhibitions I often get the comment “Oh you must use Photoshop”,
with the suggestion this is some new form of digital
tomfoolery….trickery….cheating. This new way of working with
images is deceitful and wrong; or at least that what these
groups of people are suggesting. It’s true the images are
manipulated. The average person can’t press the shutter button
on their automatic cameras and come back with the same images I
produce, but isn’t that part of what makes it art? Throughout
the history of photography the average amateur photographer
could not replicate the images of the professional photographic
artist. This trickery or, more appropriately called image
manipulation, has occurred since the medium of photography was
invented. Is it wrong, or is it part of what makes photography
an art? The Pictorialist’s, like Edward Steichen and his
multiple printing platinum print with applied color shown below,
were masters of manipulation using many techniques t