In Defense of the Poor Image by Hito Steyerl
What make an image a poor image? Is it because it is blurry? Is it the resolution of the image? Was it captured on a older device or lower quality device? Or is it deemed poor merely by the audience? Hito Steyerl explores the poor image, the over sharing of images including he poor image, and how these poor images should not be cast out.
Thomas Ruff, jpeg rl104, 2007. ^
In our social society today the large amount of oversharing can contribute to the quality and resolution of some images and videos to slowly be diminished with each save and re-upload. Does this diminish the importance of the content from its origin? However this does create an image that would not be as aesthetically pleasing to some anymore as it once did. Hito also explores how as a society we tend to act “snobbish” about technology. This applies to images and videos; those that are of a higher resolution, a clearer more crisp image is more pleasing to the eye and tend to be favorited more. I mean how many of us upgrade our TV every so often for one with a bigger or more clearer picture?
With this attitude we may be casting out vital and important images, information, and opportunities. Hito mentions a moment when a speaker at a conference refused to show clips from a Humphrey Jennings piece to go along with the film essay because there was nothing more advanced than a DVD player and and old video projector. The entire presentation would have had so much more added to it if the audience could have been able to have visual examples of what the speaker was talking about especially considering it was about a visual film. A lot of opportunity was lost here due to the stigma of the poor image.
Nine 35mm film frames from Stan Brakhage’s Existence is Song, 1987 ^
Hito overall makes quite the defense on why we should not count out the poor image and it’s worth.
This person is shoveling pirated DVDs in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China, April 20, 2008.
This shows the massive reproduction that media such as video and images are subjected to. The desire for the product over powers the standard for “higher quality” media.
Chris Marker’s virtual home on Second Life, May 29, 2009.
