In August I saw Philip Trager's exhibit at the National Building Museum and was especially struck by a handful of his prints that show interior spaces rendered like a pencil sketch. By taking a photo with a range of low contrast tones and pushing it to be "high key", Trager achieves an effect that, from a distance, looks hand drawn.
I was inspired to go back to some images from last year to see if I could get a similar effect. These photos are from inside the Se Cathedral in Goa, India, which is a large whitewashed space filled with diffuse, mellow light. Sketched against the walls are a few shapes -- ladders, ropes, and decorative mouldings.
Granted, these aren't going to "fool" anyone for more than a second (though the effect is a little stronger when they're printed on matte paper). But it's still interesting to think about what makes us recognize an image as a photograph. Today's photographic "look" evolved through the 20th century to become contrasty, smooth, glossy, three-dimensional, and (for color photography) vibrant. When we take away most of these characteristics, we're left with something that, although clearly photorealistic, doesn't "feel" quite like a photo.
View the flickr slideshow
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