As a medium that produces visual products and was born in the era of the Industrial Revolution, photography has intersected and even involved in the visual aesthetic development after the Industrial Revolution in various parts of the world. On the other hand, photography has become an industrial commodity that forms a visual culture nowadays along with the technology development of the medium. In the industry world, every products and phenomena that is inuenced by it will always be the main stream of civilization change, and photography is no exception. The use of cameras that produce photographic images now seems to have combined with each individual, from smartphone cameras to high-resolution cameras, and also surveillance cameras such as CCTV and so on. Therefore, it is not wise if the discussion of photography practice is only touches on technological developments. More than that, the area of the discourse, its inuence on society, habit and also visual aesthetic approaches must be a more serious discussion.

“Camera is a tool for New Man and New Artist” – Alexander Rodchencko A little questioning about photographic habit that contains representations and evidence, it seems to be both an advantage and a curse for photography that has an impact on public perception, it is because current photography technology makes manipulation easier. Not only that, the development of internet technology which supports the acceleration of the dissemination of text and visual information, makes photography medium more dicult to control. This underlines that this medium should be an important target of discussion in the realm of visual medium discourse today. Digital technology, which opens up great opportunities in visual manipulation brings into the question the context of photographic evidence again, while the internet technology that makes the reproduction of photographic images innitely seems to keep the photographic image away from its authenticity. The phenomenon of post truth (impact of manipulation

practice) and post internet (related to reproduction and acceleration of circulation) in the world of photography can be likened to the story of the Opening Pandora’s Box in Greek mythology. The photography image has become a virus that inltrates and dominates the collective memory of every individual nowadays. We see the world through photography and respond to the photographic image as a new reality, although it has undergone a manipulation process. One of the ecient ways to control the use of photographic media in the public space, both in the real and virtual world: is to build public awareness in order to respond the practice of production-consumption of photographic images itself. Examining every fundamental matter in photographic media and its practices have become something urgent, so that public awareness can begin to build by degrees through education that based on the latest analysis results and can be accounted for. As a visual media that has also been adopted in the academic area of college, it is increasingly clear that this media is consciously accepted as a study that must be guarded by qualied discourse in its consumption production practice. However, if examined further, education to the public from the results of academic thoughts seems distant and well accommodated. This has a very signicant impact on photography practices in the realm of visual culture and visual arts

due to the inadequate mastery of photography discourse. The repercussions of this condition it can lead to public blindness towards the media of photography that will accumulate in the loss of the aesthetic values of photography widely, regressions also occur in understanding of discourse where rapid progression is taking place In the technology. Therefore, the importance of building bridges between various science disciplines and various parties related to the photography media is urgent, especially the science that focuses on visual aesthetic values that is art science and its interrelations. Art is a eld that has always been the initiator and indicator of change in every node of civilization history, it is also a eld that can be relied on in discourse development as a means of public awareness through any media. Photography as one of the visual media also cannot be separated from the intervention of art in its body, especially ne art. Instead of becoming a controversy in the art world in a Modern era, photography has become a medium that has a signicant impact on art practices in the Postmodern and Contemporary
eras. Postmodern that prioritize existence and Contemporary that prioritize representation, both are clearly related directly to the ontological habit of photography as well as the problematic impact of nowadays technology. The questions and challenges (especially) of the contemporary art can easily be linked to the photography media in both criticism and practice. Departing from that, it is quite reasonable if today we need to observe photography practices in various cultural backgrounds and how they respond to this media through practitioners who seriously take a photography media from various genres in the contemporary art corridor.

Henrycus Napitsunargo