What is a dichography?
Attempt at a definition
Dichography is an imitation of photography.
In a dichography, the depiction of a reality is simulated with shifted, exchanged, added or newly composed photographic elements, imitating a high degree of authenticity through the stylistic devices of documentary photography or photojournalism.
Since photography is a broad field, I refer here to photography as a time capsule, as it was and is practised, for example, in documentary photography or photojournalism. In order to achieve the highest possible degree of authenticity, it is essential that the transfer and fixation of reflected light traces of the sceneries or objects on an image carrier are not subsequently shifted in the later processing. Whereby the subjective view of the authors is also part of the authenticity of the time capsule.
The difference between a dichography and an analogue or analogue-engraved photograph as a time capsule arises at the moment when (a) image parts of a shot taken are shifted within the image, (b) other image parts are added and/or (c) completely artificially generated image elements are joined together.
The parts of the image can be self-photographed, manually moved, added and completely recomposed, or generated by AI, which draws its image elements from a database of billions of photographs and adapts them accordingly on the instructions of the authors and the "inventiveness" of the AI.
The essence of a dichography is that the once "captured" light traces of a real scenery are "shifted" and thus lose the property of being a time capsule, but still perfectly imitate a photograph and simulate a high degree of authenticity.
In fictional image or film productions, these possibilities are nothing new. But in the journalistic-documentary-news field, which is essential for democracies, a fundamentally new situation arises. Through new technologies of AI, image processing and the possibilities of publication, which are cheap and easily accessible to ALL, makes the dissemination of dichographies possible on a mass scale. This will change the perception of photographs (as a time capsule).
The flood of images described by Günter Anders in 1980 takes on a completely different twist today if one imagines it as a flood of dichographs: "... because we are rather surrounded by images, because we are exposed to a constant rain of images. In the past there had been images in the world, today there is 'the world as image', more correctly: the world as image, as a wall of images that catches the gaze without pause, occupies it without pause, covers the world without pause. "
The dichographs on the European election campaign show the campaigning politicians Katarina Barley (SPD) and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) at their respective rallies in Düsseldorf and Duisburg in May 2019.
©2019 Photographed and dichographed by Bernd Arnold
Why is it important to me at all to conceptually distinguish my photograph from the imitation of a photograph?
The theme of the election campaign seems to me to be suitable for visualising the change in perception between a documentary photograph and the imitation of a photograph. The difference between my analogue and analogue-traditional digital photography of the election campaign rituals from the years 1984 to 2021 becomes particularly clear in the new series of images So habe ich es gesehen (So I saw it).
The analogue-traced photographic series Election Campaign Ritual encompasses several levels. It depicts some 35 years of election campaigns from a subjective point of view. They are nevertheless documentary, since on the one hand they contain my contemporary thinking, show my movement into spaces, the selection of reflected traces of light narrows down to a specific space of action of politicians and refer to changes within a period of more than three decades. The photographs have been processed using common analogue techniques such as contrast and brightness adjustments, post exposure, brightening and spot retouching.
All these photographs contain "unshifted" traces of reflected light of a reality, however it is perceived and interpreted. This is not the case with the new images in the series "So habe ich es gesehen", which I call dichographies here. Here, everything is possible and allowed. Nothing has to be as it seems.
My analogue and analogue-engraved photographs can be proven to have been produced during this period through publications in print media, as books, as vintage prints or in exhibitions. In addition, there is further evidence from these years, such as the photographic material of other photographers in archives and newspapers, which refer to the people, events and constellations in the space that existed at the time and would make a subsequent forgery considerably more difficult.
All working steps and production methods are available, visible and verifiable in my archive due to the existing negatives, prints and raw data. Still.
The dichographs shown here do not need this testimony, since authenticity cannot be assumed from the beginning.
Only by conceptually separating the visually barely distinguishable images into photographs and dichographs does it become clear that they are images of two completely different eras that unspectacularly contain the transition from the analogue to the digital age.
For more information on the development of the term dichography, see following publications
#1 Study Lady Di and the New Photographer, 1987/88 (English version)
#2 Artist's newspaper So habe ich es gesehen, 2021, 23 pictures, an essay and a design by Bernd Arnold. Newspaper print, 38x29cm, 52 pages, edition of 50. A series of dichographs and a detailed essay provides a critical outlook on the possible future photography of political events and describes the starting point, the change over time and the causes of the far-reaching change in the perception of photography as a document in the broadest sense. (only in German language)
#3 Book Die Welt der Neuen Bilder (The World of New Images: Documentary Photography and AI.), 2023.
Softcover, 14,5 cm x 19,8 cm, 144 pages, 25 bw illustrations, morisel Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-943915-60-0, (only in German language)
»About the book: Artificial intelligence creates completely new possibilities in the creation of images. For the first time, all imaging techniques of art history are combined in one tool, executable by any computer owner without special expertise. It can be used to create images that look like photographs, but are not. What does this mean for photography in general and documentary photography in particular? A discussion of these questions is overdue, considering that trust in the authenticity of photographs has helped shape human history for nearly 200 years.
Bernd Arnold, author and photographer of "Das Kölner Heil" and "Wahl Kampf Ritual," is convinced that we will enter a New World when authentic photographs and AI-generated photographic imitations compete in forming our view of the world and history. In three essays, he analyzes the history of technology and perception in photography, explains what is new and innovative about AI, and looks at the future role of documentary photography and its producers. (only in German language)«
Translated with www.deepl.com