A Walk on the Wild Side

In the late 1960s, the Canadian Willard Sterling and the US American George Elwood received the Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing the charge coupled device, or CCD. This invention and the developments in camera and software technology that followed hailed the start of a period of extreme visual creativity. As well as giving us previously unthinkable technical scope, modern digital technology has also allowed us to develop new emotional and conceptual approaches to taking and creating pictures. This book is intended to introduce you to part of the amazing spectrum of creative photographic techniques that has developed in the decades following the introduction of the CCD, although the ideas shown here represent just the tip of an enormous iceberg. The examples in this book have all been created by photographers who give their all to break with convention while pursuing their visual ideas. Many of the results demonstrate clearly that using modern technology doesn’t have to exclude the use of tried and trusted analog techniques, and the main emphasis of most of the articles is on the “perfect” image and the techniques involved in producing it.

The themes covered range from experimental focusing to the combination of ultra-modern and “old school” photographic techniques, and include printing on exotic materials and the creative use of light. The desire to break new technical and creative ground is the common motivation shared by all of our authors, and the resulting images will amaze, impress, and satisfy you in equal parts.

I would like to thank all of our contributors for their commitment and inventiveness, without which this book would never have happened. We also hope we can inspire you to develop your own ideas and to discover your very own photographic wild side.

Cyrill Harnischmacher