digital investigations

Most frequently the discourse about photography has revolved around its documentary nature, that is, the fundamental question of the relationship between the object and its representation. However, other approaches are possible as well. One of them has been suggested by Vilem Flusser; photography and other ‘technical-images’ are visualizations that have been created through the process of concretization (visualization is the ability to display raw data without compressing them into a generalized information). Thus, photography should be perceived as a projection rather than representation. The essence of photography lies in its ability to project a meaning or a context for creating a meaning out of seemingly discrete elements. It is the relation between the object, apparatus (lens), and operator that provides the epistemological key to photography. In other words, photography triggers an act of communication that is unlike any other cultural act. Since the invention of the photographic process, the linear, text-based narrative have been replaced gradually by technical images as the dominating cultural code. This is because photography, or digital processing in general, enabled mechanical reproduction as well as copying and distribution of the visual code. In this way, the medium of photography and the act of photographing overcome an artificial division between science and art. Visualization is the beginning of a new mode of interaction and communication. The debate about the documentary nature of photography comes to an end. Reality and fiction cannot be unequivocally distinguished from each other by a criterion of truth. The truth itself is a projection of our current knowledge and information.