BLOCK FOTO 2023 NFT ART PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY BY ALAO YOKOGI English .

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BLOCK PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAO YOKOGI TOKYO JAPAN 2023 ENGLISH 4K - YouTube


The Invention of Photography
 
Part 1: The Principle of the Camera Obscura (Around 5th Century BC)
 
The first principle of the camera is the discovery of a natural phenomenon in which a small hole in a dark room projects the outside scene upside down on the opposite wall. Humans have known about this for a long time.
 
In fact, I knew about this phenomenon when I was about 7 years old, even though I was not taught about it. In a dim 6-tatami room in the prefectural housing complex in Kojidai, Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. On the morning after a typhoon, I woke up alone and saw the white curtain covering the wooden frame glass door glowing faintly. It seemed that light was leaking from the small hole in the skylight, and the curtain was glowing dimly. When I crawled closer and took a closer look, the blurry natural-colored image was the upside-down garden of my house. I was amazed by its beauty without knowing its meaning. It is a sparkling experience that still appears in my memory. I learned much later that this phenomenon is the principle of photography.
 
Part 2: The Invention of the Camera Obscura (Around 16th Century)
 
In the 16th century, a camera obscura (photo mirror) with a lens in a box was invented, and painters used it for composition and perspective. It was the dream of scientists (alchemists) to permanently fix the images drawn by the camera obscura. This is because it was a time when everyone knew scientifically that human skin is sensitive to ultraviolet rays.
 
3. Niepce's Photographic Process (1826)
 
Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce developed a process for fixing photographic images using silver nitrate. The exposure time was long and the images were not very clear. It was not yet practical, but the blurry images are now popular, and many people believe that he is the inventor of photography.
 
4. Daguerreotype (1837)
 
Frenchman Louis Daguerre developed a process called daguerreotype, which involves coating a silver plate with iodine silver and developing the image with mercury vapor after exposure. This made practical photography possible for the first time, albeit with a long exposure time. The image was also clear and divine. Daguerre's decision to open his photographic patent to the public allowed daguerreotypes to spread around the world. As a result, Daguerre is considered the officially recognized inventor of photography.
 
5. Talbot's Calotype (1841)
 
Englishman Henry Fox Talbot developed a process called calotype, which uses silver chloride paper to obtain a negative image. The images were not very clear, but the technique of creating multiple prints from a negative had a significant impact on later photographic techniques.
 
6. Development of the dry plate process (1850s)
 
A sensitive glass dry plate was developed for negatives, which improved the sensitivity over daguerreotypes and reduced exposure time. This made photography more convenient.
 
7. George Eastman's Kodak Camera (1888)
 
Photography as Art
 
In the early days of photography, it was developed as a way to record the world, such as landscapes, people, and everyday life. However, the precise mechanical and optical images created by the camera were considered to be just scientific recording devices, not art.
 
In this era, many photographers emerged who sought to make photography into art by creating pictures that were more painterly, known as pictorialism. These photographs were often praised for their beauty and artistry, and they helped to establish photography as a legitimate art form.
 
Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer from New York City, was initially a pictorialist photographer. He also owned a gallery that introduced Impressionist paintings to America. One of his young friends was Edward Steichen, a successful pictorialist photographer.
 
Stieglitz believed that "photography is not art because it looks like a painting, but because it is a mechanical and realistic depiction of reality." He believed that street photography was the true form of photographic art.
 
Under Stieglitz's influence, Steichen began to take photographs for fashion magazines such as Vogue. He abandoned pictorialism and adopted a more mechanical and straightforward approach to shooting fashion and portraits. He also photographed the battlefields of World War I.
 
Steichen later played a key role in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. As director of MoMA, he curated a photography exhibition called "The Family of Man," which toured the world.
 
In this era, straight photography, portraiture, and landscape photography in black and white were considered to be the most artistic forms of photography, while color photography was often seen as having less artistic value.
 
The Invention and Development of Color Photography
 
In 1924, two musicians, Mannes and Godowsky, developed a prototype color film, which they sold to Kodak in 1935. Based on this technology, Kodak developed Kodachrome, a positive film, which was released in 1935 as a 16mm motion picture film. The following year, a 35mm still photography film was also released, and Kodachrome quickly became popular around the world. Positive films were used directly as printing originals. Basically, the original was not duplicated. Color slides could also be viewed at home using a projector.
 
War photographer Robert Capa was already using Kodachrome on the Italian front in 1941. When he stepped on a landmine and was blown up in 1954, the last photo he took was Kodachrome I. The sensitivity was about ISO 10. The durability of that film with an external development system is outstanding, and it still retains a clear image today.
 
The artistic value of color photography was low because the shooting method was the same as black and white, but the subsequent processing was different. With black and white, you could control it yourself and produce prints until the end with simple equipment. On the other hand, color processing required development and printing under a precise temperature control system. Therefore, it was very expensive and difficult to create personal art works. Instead, color photography using positive films flourished in various fields, such as commercial breakthrough fashion magazines, advertising, posters, and so on.
 
At that time, fashion magazines were the leading media. Special effects such as retouching and compositing, like today, were also produced by specialized labs and craftsmen, and printing technology was also evolving. Everything that Photoshop can do today was possible in the professional photography world of the United States in the 1960s.
 
Going back to the topic, before the release of Kodachrome, color film for movies was negative color. This is because a large number of copies were needed to be distributed to each movie theater. They were burned onto positive film and projected.
 
Color prints also became popular for home photography in the 1960s. However, color prints at that time had durability problems. The development process required a sophisticated and expensive development system, such as temperature control, and they faded quickly. Therefore, it was not suitable for artistic activities. Negative color was mainly used for family albums, while professionals used positive film, which is suitable for printing. The problem with positive film is that it has a narrow latitude and is a one-of-a-kind, requiring training to use at work. This is why positive film is called professional film.
 
The Development of Color Photography and the Invention of Digital Cameras
 
The Development of Color Photography
 
In the late 1960s, the durability and performance of negative color films improved dramatically. In addition, individuals were able to purchase relatively inexpensive developing and printing systems, rather than the expensive systems that were previously required. This led to the beginning of the "New Color" movement, in which photographers were able to control their own work in the same way as they did with black and white photography.
 
For the first time, color photography was considered to be a work of art. In the 1970s, the "New Color" movement exploded. As a result, color artwork was inevitably shot on negative color film, and contact prints became the norm. Color artwork was recognized as art because it was possible for the author to control it through self-development. Young photographers found the look of negative color and contact prints to be refreshing, and many photographers continue to shoot with negative color even in the digital age.
 
To make a color print from positive film, which was once the professional film, one way is to create an internegative (negative film) and then make a contact print from it. Naturally, the image quality is clearly lower than when printed from a color negative film. Even if it is used as a printing original, the difference in quality of color prints is clear.
 
The direct print of color positive film, the famous Cibachrome, was able to reproduce the colors and sharpness of positive film, but the tonal expression was far inferior to that of negative color. Positives look better when printed. In addition, printing was computerized in the 1980s and 1990s, and it became possible to make fairly detailed adjustments to the print.
 
The Invention of Digital Cameras
 
Early research on digital technology (1970s to 1980s)
 
Research on digital imaging technology has been underway from an early stage, and attempts have been made to capture images as electronic signals. During this period, the foundations for analog-to-digital conversion technology and sensor technology were laid.
 
The advent of commercial digital cameras (1990s)
 
In the 1990s, several companies began to introduce expensive, commercial digital cameras to the market.
 
In 1991, the first commercial digital camera that combined a camera and a digital image recording device, the Kodak DCS 100, was released. This camera was a digital back attached to a Nikon F3. The resolution was 1.3 million pixels. It was expensive, costing over $20,000. With 1 million pixels, it was already considered to be equivalent to film photography. However, from the perspective of someone who used film, like me, it was still a long way off.
 
Conclusion
 
In the 1970s, color photography began to be recognized as a work of art. The development of negative color films in the 1960s made it possible for photographers to control their own work in the same way as they did with black and white photography. This led to the beginning of the "New Color" movement, which produced some of the most iconic color photographs of the 20th century.
 
In the 1990s, digital cameras began to appear on the market. These cameras were initially expensive and had limited capabilities, but they quickly improved in terms of quality and affordability. Today, digital cameras are the dominant form of photography, and they have revolutionized the way we capture and share images.
 
Apple released the Apple QuickTake 100, a 30-megapixel digital camera, in 1994 for US$599. This was a relatively affordable product that allowed users to save photos as digital files. It was a compact point-and-shoot camera, but it was still considered a toy.
 
In 1995, Nikon released the Nikon E2/E2s digital SLR camera. It was a 130-megapixel camera that cost ¥268,000/¥328,000. This was a professional-grade digital camera with interchangeable lenses.
 
The 2000s: The rise of digital cameras
 
In the 2000s, digital camera technology advanced rapidly, leading to higher-resolution sensors and more compact designs. Digital cameras became more affordable and accessible to the general public.
　Around that time, I tested a 600-megapixel Leaf digital pack and was amazed by its performance.
　The first digital camera I used seriously was the Canon EOS D60.
It was a 6.3-megapixel digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera released by Canon on February 22, 2002. It was the successor to the Canon EOS D30. I was still not satisfied with the D30. I needed one more breath. In the end, I never used it for work.
　The EOS D60 was equipped with a 22.7 x 15.1 mm CMOS sensor (APS-C) and DIGIC II image processor. The maximum resolution was 3072 x 2048. The price was ¥348,000
 
 
TheCanon D60, with its 6.3 megapixels, had the same resolution and information content as data scanned from 35mm Fujifilm Velvia film. I finally thought it had the same performance as film and started using it for work.
 
The evolution of digital cameras was rapid in the years that followed. In the past 10 years, it has become even higher-resolution, and 35mm film cameras have been completely replaced by digital cameras. Large formats such as 6x6, 6x7, 4x5, and 8x10 were still used with film in a hybrid era.
 
Integration of smartphones and cameras since 2007
 
With the spread of smartphones, camera functions have been integrated into mobile phones. Smartphones have built-in compact high-quality cameras, making it easy to take and share photos. In addition, they are equipped with computers similar to personal computers, so image processing and effects have evolved dramatically compared to ordinary cameras.
 
Professional cameras, which are often overshadowed by smartphones, have become even higher-resolution, with 100-megapixel cameras now being practical. Autofocus, a challenge from the film era, is also nearing completion, and the most dramatic improvement in digital cameras is sensitivity. When I entered the world of professional photography, the No. 1 35mm film was Kodak's Kodachrome II, with a sensitivity of just ISO 25. That film was the main film used at the time. To master that film, it was necessary to train in pure photography, not just pressing the shutter button.
 
 
Digital photography
 
In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin discusses the changes in art works in the age of reproduction technology. He argues that the influence of reproduction technology transforms the pure originality and aura of traditional art works, and creates new forms of expression. He said that there is no aura in reproduction art, but now the boundary between the original reality and the reproduction is becoming increasingly blurred. It is different from Benjamin's era of abundance. In an era where everyday life is surrounded by reproductions, and people seek the original in those reproductions. In such an era, what can photography do?
 
In the digital age, the only way to guarantee uniqueness is through blockchain technology, which is valued through NFT art, or CriptArt. The line between reality and virtual space, or the metaverse, is becoming increasingly blurred. There will be no absolute line between reality and virtuality. Even if there is a clear line between life and death, the line between everyday life and the virtual world will surely blur.
In such an era, physical art, which has existed in the form of an object, is now called "Physical Art." And the newly born is CriptArt, or NFT art.
In the future, art will be of equal value to these two existences. They will not be opposing axes, and especially in photography, original photographs and BLOCK photographs will intertwine.
 
BLOCK photographs are a reproduction of dot images created in the process of digital evolution. They are like the biological process of "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" in evolutionary theory
One day, I made a mistake in the pixel number I entered in Photoshop on my computer. Suddenly, a blocky image appeared on the screen. I felt a sense of nostalgia. It was like 20 years ago, when internet connections were slow and images on screens didn't load immediately.
First, a blocky image appeared, and then the dots melted away until a high-quality image that could be called a photograph filled the screen. When I sent the next image, another blocky image appeared. This was not a flawed image, but rather a digital image in its growth process.
I printed the photo as it was in dot form. The image had only 9,975 pixels, with 75 x 133 pixels. When I first saw an image from a digital camera, it was 300,000 pixels, so 9,975 pixels were not yet a photograph.
But is that photo of only 9,975 pixels, missing the thousands digit, still a photograph?
Walter Benjamin said that photographs that can be reproduced have no aura. However, he also hinted at the possibility of a new aura.
Now, with NFTs, copies and originals are presented to the world on the same level.
Paintings have the aura of paintings.
Silver halide photographs have the aura of silver halide photographs.
Even in virtual space, has humanity acquired a brain that can feel aura?
 
A BLOCK photograph is a new type of photography that emerged in the digital age. It is a photograph that is not focused on the precision of the image, but rather on its aura.
 
In the analog era, photographs were unique because they were difficult to reproduce. However, with the advent of digital photography, photographs can be easily copied and shared.
 
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a new technology that can be used to create unique digital assets. NFTs can be used to represent ownership of a BLOCK photograph.
 
The author argues that BLOCK photographs are similar to early photographs, which were often blurry, grainy, and out of focus. These imperfections can add to the aura of the photograph.