Filter #8: photography post-truth, post photography

Donald Trump's stubborn proclamation that there were far more people present at his 2016 inauguration as President of the United States than at Barack Obama's ceremony four years earlier, despite photographs from both events clearly showing otherwise, ushered an era characterised by fake news. During the Corona epidemic, the number of social media posts exploded with conspiracy theory content, where photos were shared out of context, manipulated and recirculated to support a particular interpretation of reality. The outbreak of the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip has reminded us that press and war photographs can be used for propaganda purposes and that different groups have an interest in spreading or preventing certain images from circulating to influence public opinion on the wars. At the same time, with the proliferation of AI-generated images whose creation is completely detached from the notion that photography depicts 'what has been', photography is in the midst of a paradigm shift happening so fast that neither users, developers nor politicians can keep up, with the consequence that both legislation and ethical guidelines in the field are lagging behind.
 
Ever since the official launch of photography in 1839, the medium's special relationship to reality has been debated. Because images were created as a result of light imprinting on a photo-sensitive material, photography was celebrated in both scientific circles and the general public as a particularly truthful and objective medium. However, the striking realism of photography also made it an obvious medium for lying, and from the very beginning we find examples of photographers altering and retouching their images. The potential of the medium to manipulate the masses was also soon realized. As early as the 1850s, Napoleon III hired photographers to document newly built bridges, palaces and railway lines to communicate a story of progress and growth, thereby securing public support for his modernisation of Paris. With the transition from analogue to digital photography and the advent of the internet and social media in our everyday lives in the 1990s and 2000s, the distribution of photos and information has increased remarkably. We are presented daily with a stream of photos accompanying official news, eyewitness accounts, conspiracy theories, fake news and lifestyle topics – photographs that are used to substantiate facts, but just as often used to support a particular agenda, or simply shared to monetise advertising if an image goes viral.
 
In FILTER #8: photography post-truth, post-photography, we will explore how photographs helps to convey and shape reality, and how photographs, consciously or unconsciously, have been used to spread a certain view of the world, influencing history and our view of it: How propaganda, press and advertising photography, but also amateur and art photography, have shaped our perception of world events as well as our attitudes, politics, self-perception and taste – and how the perception of the truth value of photography has changed with technological developments. What role does photography play in this new 'post-truth' reality? And is it still the same medium it was almost 200 years ago?
 
Please send suggestions for articles or portfolios to: kontakt@filterforfotografi.net.
Proposals are examined on an ongoing basis.
 
Release date: March 2025


  
About Filter

Established in 2007, Filter is the only photo journal in Scandinavia that investigates photography’s impact on how we live our lives, and how we make politics, science and art. The journal presents various types of photography (amateur, art, documentary, travel and scientific) and different approaches to the medium (photo theory, anthropology, art history, cultural theory, philosophy etc.), featuring both contemporary and historical photographic material. Each issue is centred on a theme. Themes so far are Photogenic, Space, Normal, Disappearances, Hybrid and Nordic Now! 

Editor-in-Chief: Camilla Kragelund