Caelum et Terram

 Photography, for many, is about the subject and the recording of life for keepsakes or references. Confining the photograph to its archival and indexical qualities restricts the medium's full potential. This confinement may cause the actual photograph to become transparent and fix the gaze only on the subject. The material, quality, and overall feel of the photograph may not even be considered. The process by which the photo is made has become, in a way, obsolete. Society has become content with instant gratification that, over the evolution of photography, the physical picture has become less of an object and more of a string of codes that can be viewed with a simple search or scroll on a computer or phone. These interactions change how viewers and even creators develop and form completed works. The integration of digital imagery has taken away the aura of creating and physically looking at an image. Through physical manipulation of the surface of a photograph, changing how viewers interact with the image brings attention to the tangible photograph and its ability to be manipulated. With these manipulations, artists can reclaim the photograph as an object, investigate further into the surface of the object, and create new meaning.