At the time of this exhibition, computers were finding their way into every aspect of daily life, including the process of artistic creation. The exhibition "Metamorphoses: Photography in the Electronic Age" examined how contemporary artists are combining photography and the latest computer imaging technology to create new and different works of art. Organized by the Aperture Foundation in New York, the show featured 75 images in color and black and white by 23 artists.
Artist Pedro Meyer employed the innovative digital imaging technology so subtly that some works, on first examination, appear to be straight documentary photos in the tradition of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand. In Meyer's 'Trabajadores Migratorios Mexicanos' California laborers tend a field, overshadowed by a monumental Caesar's Palace billboard advertising "free luxury service." This juxtaposition is an effective commentary on the role of Mexican immigrants in American society.
On closer examination, something seems amiss: why aren't the workers or the billboard casting shadows? Meyer has nearly seamlessly inserted the figures and the sign via computer into the landscape, creating a new digital reality.
The result raised the issue of whether the new digital technology compromises photographic reality. But Meyer and most other photographers would argue that there has never been an objective photographic truth. The choices a photographer makes--cropping, various darkroom techniques, choices in subject matter--have always contributed to a biased, subjective glimpse of the world.