This essay definitely took me more than 25 minutes to read, but it was a reading that was well worth it, packed with curiosities.
In this class, I think I am one of the people less familiar with capture. I don’t have much knowledge of photography or film and I found this reading really insightful because it sent me on a deep dive that made me try to understand what it means to capture something. Or more concretely, how technology advanced to answer our questions. I appreciate the scientific context that we got from astronomy, specifically, because it characterized the iterative photographic process for more accuracy. I found it very interesting how at the start of the essay, we distinguish photography as passive. This passivity implies inaction, lack of intention and a certain reproducibility. And I think that the entire process of learning how to photograph was very intentional and active, the tools we have now came from very specific needs. I found this very interesting.
I think the section in the essay that spoke about photogrammetry was very interesting to me. Because I thought photogrammetry was a relatively new process, the essay alludes to modern forms of photogrammetry using software and 3D models. But photogrammetry as a concept has existed truly since the 19th century. I think I would like to learn more about traditional methods of photogrammetry and the immense labor that it takes.