Gabbie Hanna, one of my favorite YouTubers, faked going to Coachella with the help of Kellan Hendry, a 21-year-old photographer who takes ordinary portraits of people and Photoshops them into fantastical wonderlands. They had me and the entire Internet fooled, which made me think about how there is a new artist being born in the digital age: Photo Artists. Along with painters and sculptures, Photoshop and Lightroom editors are using these technologies to create masterpieces. The rise of the “Photo Artist” makes me think about a media studies theory I learned at Cal, which is Walter Benjamin’s notion that the aura for a work of art is lost with the rise of mechanical reproduction. Can a highly Photoshopped image be considered art, or does its ability to be reposted make it lose its credibility? What happens when photo and video manipulation goes too far and is used for political gain? All this and more will be discussed on today’s episode!
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