From Zero to One discusses the evolution of digital photographic means and their uses. From digital manipulation software to high tech billion-pixel cameras, photography is not solely reserved for artistic purposes. Photographic outputs have breached our lives as there is almost a guaranteed daily interaction in some form or another. Billboards, magazine ads and newspapers are a few examples of the medias manipulation of photography into a means of manipulating the readers or viewers into some sort of response. Photos are manipulated after being taken for a multitude of different reasons. To remove blemishes or change eye color, for scene completion, to remove or add loved ones from a photo, and the list goes on. Where is the sincerity in this medium, which is so easily manipulated? Ritchin ends this chapter with a quote from filmmaker Wim Wenders, “We are entering an era when no one will be able to say whether a picture is true or false. They are all becoming beautiful and extraordinary… soon they will really end up making us blind”, who recognizes that the potentials of photography and editing will begin to create a world that we cannot live up to (67). With the possibility to mimic reality but with the “perfect” person standing in front of the magnificent landscape, how are we going to see the beauty in the honest and comparatively lackluster reality? While the possibilities that are being developed within the field of photography hold incredible artistic potential, they are being lost to the agenda society and the medium is becoming just another societal tool.
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