The main difference seems to be that, whereas photography still claims some sort of objectivity, digital imaging is an overtly fictional process. As a practice that is known to be capable of nothing but fabrication, digitization abandons even the rhetoric of truth that has been such an important part of photography’s cultural success.
Geoffrey Batchen

If we want to call up more hopeful or positive uses of manipulated images, we must choose images in which manipulation is itself apparent, not just as a form of artistic reflexivity but to make a larger point about the truth value of photographs and illusionistic elements in the surface of (and even definition of) reality. 
Martha Rosler

Because photographs are products connected the ‘real’, people can be quite gullible and take them as truth. With the rise of digital technologies, many images have some form of manipulation which affects the way in which a photograph can be read, interpreted, and the meaning it conveys. Access to digital photographic manipulations on our phone and smart devices has complicated this further. Pixels have become the new pigment, and photographers can almost become painters. Digital media has given a new discourse to photography, a scrutiny and speculation on truth and manipulation in an image. You will employ this tension of manipulation versus the mechanical nature of photography on a topic you are interested in.

You are to create an image that enacts trickery. You must have an idea or meaningful purpose of why you used manipulation in your scene. You can use the camera on your phone, a professional camera, or a disposable camera. Be sure to plan your images well, and photograph them with post-production in mind. After bringing your images into the computer, execute your manipulation using Photoshop in one single document with many layers.

The manipulation can be, (and works best when it is) subtle and unassuming yet poignant. But, you may also create more exaggerated manipulations if your idea calls for it. Be careful of how you use symbols, codes, subject matter, particular references and what your manipulation can inform or impose. The trickery can be made by juxtaposing multiple images together to create one single image, changing lighting situations, proportions, multiplying elements, etc. Or you may erase or alter specific elements of an image by pushing pixels. There are many ways to manipulate in Photoshop and I encourage you to explore. Most important, be creative, thoughtful and informed of what the image will convey because of your ‘trick’. Every choice is important; therefore, you must carefully make decisions and experiment with what those decisions mean to the concept of the piece. It is not the amount of ‘trickery’ that is important, but why your trick informs meaning of the content -that will make a successful piece.

REQUIREMENTS

This project must be completed in one document with layers in Photoshop. You must use original photographs, this means you must take your own photos for the piece. If you wish to use found images, please consult with your TA or Christine to get permission. This project must be in colour, colour and density balanced and adjusted.  Size dimensions is a minimum of 8 inches on each side, proportions variable to your project, and must be of fine art printing quality (300 dpi) although you are not required to print it.  You are required to hand in a working .psd file and .jpg file on a labelled flash drive.  The photoshop file must be UNFLATTENED, therefore layers intact to show and prove your work.

You must name your .psd file by your last then first name, and you must label the exterior of your flash drive, failure to label your work with your name will result in a grade of zero.

Along with your flash drive, you must submit a maximum one page hard-copy print-out during lab to your TA with the following information:

• Your Name
• Title of the Work
• Dimensions & Resolution (inches & DPI)
• Maximum 100 word description of intention for the work, and its relationship to ‘trickery’ (this is for our ability to grade it if questions arise, we will not grade this description itself)
• Maximum 150 word summary of received online peer feedback, how you considered the feedback and how you incorporated the feedback into revisions of the work.  If you did not use the feedback in your revisions, please detail why not.