Authenticity is an essential part of photography | Masserman Photography
As I stated in the first post, we are inundated with an incredible amount of image media in our contemporary society. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social networks receive thousands, maybe millions of picture uploads each and every hour. Digital filters attempt to recreate the sepia tinted, antique look of older styles of photography, but these have a hollow, fake feeling to them. There is still a tremendous amount of interest in authentic forms of photography from as far back as the 1800s.
Lomography is the name of a photographic development company born out of a hobbyists’ organization that first began around 1990. The company recently announced a Kickstarter campaign to finance the development of its Petzval camera lenses. Within one day, the campaign raised $500,000, five times the amount that Lomography was trying to raise.
The interest in the Petzval lenses surrounds the unique close focus created by the large aperture and small lens. This creates a crisp and clear focus against a blurred background. The Petzval was introduced to the world in 1840 and it quickly became a favorite due to its sharp focus and much shorter photo development time.
The blurring effect caused by the Petzval lenses turns what normally would be a simple portrait into a unique work of art. The small area of focus makes the subject jump out of a swirling, energetic backdrop. This puts the viewer’s attention squarely on the central focus of the picture and intensifies the response to the subject’s emotional state.
Digital photography services can try to create a vintage look and feel, but nothing beats the authenticity of the original. The Petzval creates an artistic style of photography that cannot be duplicated by digital cameras, which have lenses with a much larger area of focus. Lomography’s efforts all surround a return to older forms of photography in reaction to over-digitization of pictures. The amount of money they raised, and the short amount of time they did it in, shows that there’s a clear demand for artistic photography.
Masserman Photography sees the art in every moment. Let us capture a stirring image for you that Instagram can’t reproduce. Call us to see if we can serve your portrait needs in Southeastern Michigan.
