By Max Van Kleek
An extreme closeup of an digitally disfigured face, with a artificially
bruised eye, and shut, swollen eyelids overwhelms you on the mainpage
of
this jumbled web site. The title, "from analog to digital photography'
emblazoned above the picture, resolves some ambiguity about the web
site's purpose. But the huge, dominant image supported by a patchwork
quilt of a mainpage leaves many questions unanswered; what message
is
the author trying to convey with the image? Is the emphasis of Zonezero
on digital modification of photographs for fun? Or perhaps the ethical
implications of photograph modification?
Based on this main page, we are not surprised to find the web site's
overall purpose seems to be quite blurry. Only after passing through
the web site's guided tour does one get a sense of the features, size,
and most importantly, purpose of the site. But like many niche audience
web sites, ZoneZero also offers many other features that, while
expanding the features on the web site, distracts from its overall
objective. In this case, the objective seems to be to enable the
sharing and discussing of photography. This can be done exclusively
by
the forums and galleries, without chat rooms, online "magazine",
and an
online store for photographic equipment, in the form of links to
amazon.com. These features would not detract from the site if only
they
existed in such a way that they were subtlety integrated in the site,
so
that it they did not compete with its main features. However, since
the
site is plagued by visual/layout inconsistency throughout ZoneZero
(even
among pages within the features themselves), smooth integration might
be
asking too much.
While not organized necessarily well, the content of the core features
are still quite impressive. The photography collections in the site
are
divided between the Gallery, for curated photography exhibits, and
the
Portfolio for a random display of contributions from site visitors.
The
main galleries feature individual exhibitions for slightly over 100
photographers, each proof which contains around 10 to 30 works on
display.
These works range from the realistic to the abstract, and from the
deeply personal and emotional, to documentary.
While the galleries and portfolio could stand by themselves, making
the
chat room and forum seem entirely gratuitous, their presence illustrates
ZoneZero's desire to make itself the heart of a community. ZoneZero
has
seemed to, in fact, be quite successful in harboring a community of
internet-inspired photography-enthusiasts from the Latin Americas
and
the US. The emphasis on Latin Americans on the site seems to stem
from
ZoneZero founder Pedro Meyer's desire to expose untapped creative
energy
in Latin America, where many are now finally having their first
opportunities to explore the Internet. In the forums, Pedro seems
to
encourage photography enthusiasts to share their thoughts about the
philosophical and artistic implications of switching from "the
analog
darkroom to the digital darkroom." Many of these forums do have
active
conversations, with interesting contributions from active and
enthusiastic photographers; both those who are starting to adopt digital
imaging technologies and those who are not. For example, the following
quote is are from an anonymous contributor who is clearly not convinced:
"The Mexican election analogy is appropriate, but for the
wrong reasons:Vast sums of money spent to manipulate an election
results (...) yielding 'instant democracy'. With digital photograpy,
vast sums of money spent to manipulate an image yields 'instant
art'. There is something sad and empty about both processes (...)"
Seeing the energy these forums and the galleries exhibit, Pedro Meyer
and the Zone seem to have garnered considerable interest and
participation in their web site. This is impressive, despite their
disorganized, inconsistent, and visually uninteresting web space --
their vision and resources have carried their website to success.