David Campany, in his review “Aesthetic of the Pixel”, ( http://davidcampany.com/thomas-ruff-the-aesthetics-of-the-pixel/ ) is inspired by Thomas Ruff’s “Jpeg” and affirms that mass production of images, all formally “correct”, has established a kind of “aesthetic regime” of image. The icon of this regime is the digitalization process, that nearly imposes the re-archiving and redistribution of every image, regardless of which media was originated from.
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| Image from Thomas Ruff's "JPEG" |
According to Campany, Ruff’s pixelation process arouses a new aesthetic sense, a renewed authenticity, similar to the reality of the analogue grain. In a certain way Campany writes about freedom and anarchy vs regime and formality of homogenous electronic continuum.
In another review on Ruff's work, Joerg Colberg ( http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2009/04/review_jpegs_by_thomas_ruff/ ), defining Ruff ".... one of the most creative and certainly inventive photographers of our time ....", at the same time writes about the debate if this kind of work could be defined photography or not. According to Colberg, the answer to this debate will not get to the point and, regardless Ruff's opera being photography, graphic design or whatever, this opera works. On the other side Colberg asks himself if this deep use of technique in order to get free from technique could be a paradox but does find a clear answer, even if the doubt is that this technique could open a new aesthetic and a new medium specificity.
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| Image from Thomas Ruff's "JPEG" |
In my personal opinion, providing that the "pixelation" technique can be easily achieved on any image, exactly like the use of other techniques, I believe that in the outstanding work by Thomas Ruff's the pixelation is only a medium at that is all about aesthetic.
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| My personal try of pixelation: Fraser Island, Australia, The lost ship |
