The Cosmonaut Ivan Istochnikov in the Post-Photographic Era

Abstract

Photography is undergoing a radical transformation due to three factors of technological development: digitalization, the beginning and accelerated development of the Internet and, finally, the revolution of mobile devices. This ongoing process resulting in what has been called Post-Photography. Key concepts in Photography are being “dematerialized” in the digital “liquid” environment of the World Wide Web, where the individual authorship of images is giving way to forms of visual expression in which a new meaning is created and concepts such as truth and memory enter a crisis. This work questions whether the project Sputnik, made by Joan Fontcuberta in 1997 with the purpose of reflecting on the uses of Photography at that time, would make sense in the current Post-Photographic Era. After detailing the adventure of the cosmonaut Ivan Istochnikov and what happened in the media, the characteristics of Post-Photography are studied, to conclude that such a work would have no meaning after the aforementioned transformation of the photographic act.