Synopses & Reviews
In her seminal work On Photography” Susan Sontag proffered the myriad ideologies that underlie the photographic enterprise: photographs allow us to hold the whole world in our heads, photographs enhance experience as aesthetic consumerism, photographs make up and thicken modernity, photographs confirm reality, photographs cultivate perception, photographs democratize all experiences by translating them into images. Perhaps no medium better than photography manages to capitalize on the potential of the hybrid spaces and the possibility in the liminal areas generated out of the intersection between art and technology. No other medium, as well, seems to be able to keep up with the lightning pace at which digital innovation is rendering itself obsolete day after day.
Trey Ratcliff works in HDR (High-dynamic-range) photography and is one of the leading practitioners in the world. Armed with a camera and a tripod, he traipses across countries and ventures into some of its least populated corners. Harnessing an impeccable grasp on the aesthetic with an unmatched mastery of the technical, he converts into pixels a spectacular anthology of natural as well as manmade landscapes gleaned from different parts of the planet. Returning from every excursion with a stock of RAW images, he then initiates the post-processing where photo-editing programs assist him in recreating the scene he saw when he first raised his camera. Algorithms, tweaked and modified according to the photographers specifications, are deployed to bring his memories, his experiences, his visions back to life. Every joule of effort exerted between the click of the shutter to the click of the mouse is funneled into the crafting of images that offer a palpable yet timeless impression of the world around us. Within the four edges of the frame, he sets out to build a perceptual theater mystery occasionally interrupts clarity, brightness is always balanced by darkness, sharp details intersperse areas of softness. Pockets of riddles are embedded within the composition, inviting the viewer to a dance between intelligibility and a considered lack thereof. Jolting our sensorial faculties at every turn, Ratcliff journeys through our retinas and whets a most fundamental appetite within us to see our dwelling place in its infinite faces.
Completed photographs are then posted on Ratcliffs blog stuckincustoms.com. Every day of the year, Ratcliff uploads something of a diary entry that consists of text along with one image, which he captions stating the geographic location and occasionally accompanies with a tale surrounding the specific locale. His site has become the #1 Travel Photography Blog on the internet in recent years and boasts millions of viewers on average per photograph. The sharing of his imagery married with a flair for the narrative has catapulted the photographer to towering popularity and unprecedented receipt. Stuckincustoms.com has become a prolific social agent both buttressing as well as testifying to human mobility and human curiosity. Each an allegory of the relationship between man and technology, Ratcliffs photographs find a consistency connecting their conception with their reception.
As modes of display and mechanisms of dissemination continue to undergo rigorous renewals, novel systems supporting the consumption of aesthetic production will be forged. What we see, how we see, what we share, how we share, what we learn, how we learn these are the critical questions whose answers will come to shape future lives. Imminent updates on web-based interactivity, interface and intercommunication will redefine the social role, and naturally the historical ramifications, of art. Creative expression, along with both its scheme and scope of exhibition, will more than ever act as vital indices of the sociocultural dynamics of globalization.
Light Falls Like Bits: The Photography of Trey Ratcliff will critically consider the work and the enterprise of world-renowned HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff in art historical and theoretical contexts, in an attempt to contribute to the discourse on the evolution of photography in the 21st century.
Synopsis
As modes of display and mechanisms of dissemination continue to undergo rigorous renewals, novel systems supporting the consumption of aesthetic production will be forged. What we see, how we see, what we share, how we share, what we learn, how we learn and#150; these are the critical questions whose answers will come to shape future lives. Imminent updates on web-based interactivity, interface and intercommunication will redefine the social role, and naturally the historical ramifications, of art. Trey Ratcliff, leading practitioner of HDR photography, dwells in this realm where art, technology and social media overlap and where they even, as exhibited on his blog stuckincustoms.com and overall online presence, enhance each other. Light Falls Like Bits will critically consider the work and the enterprise of Trey Ratcliff in art historical and theoretical contexts, in an attempt to contribute to the discourse on the evolution of photography in the 21st century.
About the Author
Michelle Bogre is an educator, documentary photographer, copyright lawyer and author. She frequently speaks on issues of copyright, and photography as activism and advocacy. She has two photographs in the permanent collection of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Currently she is Associate Professor, Photography at Parsons The New School for Design. She lives in New York City.
Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, and lecturer based in San Francisco. His wide-ranging work focuses on the intersection of alternative religion, media, and the popular imagination. He is the author of four books, and his essays on music, techno-culture, and spirituality have appeared in dozens of books. Davis has contributed to scores of publications, and has been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, NPR, and the New York Times. He graduated from Yale University in 1988, and is currently earning his Ph.D. in religious studies at Rice University.
Professor in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego, Jordan Crandall is a media artist, theorist, and performer. He is the 2011 winner of the Viland#233;m Flusser Theory Award for outstanding theory and research-based digital arts practice. Crandall is both the founding director of the Active Structures + Materials research studio at UCSD, and a founding editor of the online journal VERSION. He lives in San Diego.
Clayton Morris is a co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend on Fox News Channel and a former co-host of The Daily Buzz. He covers consumer technology for Fox and hosts weekly technology segments for Fox News Radio and FoxNews.com. He lives in New York City.