No Filter

Is it valid to say that a photograph has no filter? It is common to see on social media, when someone posts a photograph they are very proud of, the caption tagged with: “#nonfilter,” “#sinfiltro,” as if it were an added value of the shot, or as if the photograph stood out from the rest because it was captured and shared without any prior retouching or digital editing. First of all, what does taking a photograph consist of? Regardless of whether we consider digital or chemical technology, taking a photograph is a process that consists of obtaining an image from the capture and processing of light. Each camera is built with certain components or uses a certain technology, which means that, under the same conditions, different cameras take photographs with different tones. Something similar happens with the human eye: each eye has a different configuration because of its anatomy or visual health. A person with astigmatism will not see the same way as a person with 20/20 vision, and a colorblind person will not perceive images the same way as someone who is not. Neural processes may also be involved in perception. One brain interprets images and light differently from another. Even one's mood has an influence: a cheerful person is very likely to notice more intense colors in a landscape than a sad person; therefore, however you look at it, there is no way to capture reality without first processing it in some way. The processing of an image may come from the camera, from your eye, from your brain, or from your mood, so to say that a photograph has no filter strikes me as nonsense, since the perception of the image is not unique and depends largely on the observer or on the device being used. © Alejandro Guipe | All Rights Reserved.