Truth and beauty in contemporary urban photography

Abstract

Does city still need photography? Or does it show itself more effectively through other forms of communication? The question brings us back almost two hundred years ago, at the time of the spread of the first daguerreotypes, when the query was: Does city still need painting? The question raises several other issues - truth and beauty, analogical and digital, truth and photo editing - that this essay examines by comparing some images. We are convinced that “the more we can speak of a picture, the more unlikely it is to speak of photography” (R. Barthes).  The essay describes the work of some artists/photographers who have addressed the issue of urban photography. Works in which the figurative and visionary component is based on the interaction of traditional shooting techniques and processes of digital post-production.