Book Review: “Photography Reborn: Image Making In the Digital Age” by Jonathan Lipkin

“The artists in this book have demonstrated that for them, digital photography is no more than a means to an end, a medium through which to transmit their ideas.” That’s from the Conclusion in this medium-format, soft cover, 127-page, color photography book, which the author divides into chapters that cover portraits, the body, landscapes, etc. I don’t think it competes for space on the coffee table, but the book does provide a handy sampling of digitally manipulated shots from the likes of Nick Knight, Jeff Wall, Pedro Meyer, and Moriko Mori. Handy because you might avoid being duped into buying an expensive book by an artist who perhaps should have waited awhile. There is little in this volume that i really like, unfortunately. You see adept retouching but frankly, not enough in the way of a beautiful rendering of an idea. So much of what we call ‘digital art’ is offensive to the eye and just plain trite, as if the artist is celebrating reaching a new level of computer technique rather than saying anything from the heart. Now, there is an Andreas Gursky shot that I would welcome on my wall, but what is so “digital” about Gursky other than stitching shots together? A Loretta Lux portrait made the cover…with the typical kooky denuded visage of a child against prefab clouds. Yes, these experiments are taking us somewhere, but where is clearly not yet known. I recommend this as a reference volume and you can get it on eBay for as little as $5.