David Pace and Stephen Wirtz manipulate and transform wirephotos transmitted during World War II. Their croppings and enlargements expose the artifacts of the wirephoto technology – the dots, lines, irregularities and retouchings from the war years. Instead of retouching the images to create an illusion of reality, they make visible the manipulation of the images that were published as news.
By exposing the artifacts of wirephoto technology and the actions of the human hands that retouched the images, their work highlights, transforms, and subverts the intention, the content, and the process of these wartime photographs. They raise questions about the technologies of image making and image transmission, the notion of truth in journalism, and the role of propaganda in news photography.
Schilt Publishing, 2019