Too Digital?
MARCH 4, 2024
Every now and then I do a shoot where a number of images come straight out of the camera with very little post processing required. It is a rare occurrence, but occasionally, I get lucky with a good one that just looks great straight away. The image included here titled 'A Most Colorful UFO' is one of them. It is one of my backlit tissue, plastic bag series that I seem to be stuck on right now because the process intrigues me so much. I was, and still am, excited to share this one with the world. I composited it for symmetry purposes which is a perfectly acceptable technique in the ICM world. Outside of that, the image is straight out of the camera.
Upon submission to one of the ICM websites, I got an immediate rejection because the admin felt it was a digital image, not in keeping with the spirit of the blur and imperfections that are common with photographs in the ICM world.
I agree that it does look like a digitally generated image. But what makes it so is the constant plane of movement with the camera. I managed to stay at a consistent focal distance from the subject matter when making the photo, and that is what caused the image to be very crisp. That is a rare occurrence in close-up ICM work.
One of the things I like about ICM is that technique can be simultaneously everything and nothing in the making of a good image. But I do find it a bit disheartening that some of the people who control what participants see and do not see in the ICM world are creating artificial boundaries on what is and is not acceptable as ICM based on their own preferences and opinions.
If the camera is moved intentionally during an exposure, then it is ICM regardless of the outcome of the activity. If we start creating artificial boundaries for what is acceptable as ICM art, then the movement is going to eventually stagnate and go the way of the cubism and pointilism movements, and it will be the fault of those who think they get to decide what is and what is not ICM. Artists are a creative lot, and will never become machines forever churning out work that fits someone else's standards and confines for creativity. If that becomes the fate of ICM then we'd all be better off harvesting corn husks and bits of coal to be carved up and sold as 'folk art' for tourists passing through Appalachia who want to place something in a display case to commemorate their passage through the part of the world in which I live.
To the gatekeepers of ICM, PLEASE let the movement breathe. Don't suffocate it with your own preferences and biases.