WEEKLY 3: THE POOR IMAGE

I had never considered poor images or ones of low quality to be a subject of a political matter. However, Hito Steyerl brings to mind many different issues that can be derived just from an image with lower resolution. One line that stuck out to me was how "Resolution was fetishized as if its lack amounted to the castration of the author." This reveals the contemporary hierarchy of images that is based off of resolution and was created out of visual culture.

The way in which this piece was written felt like a conversation about class. This is highlighted further by calling low resolution images "poor" images. There is a certain stigma that comes with an image being of bad quality. Either that it is pirated, illegal, or just old. The circulation of these images fuel into capitalist media. They are not given credit when it is due which is important because they play an important role in society providing rapid circulation, access to visual culture, and information transmission.

Even though there is a hierachy to crisper, higher resolution images, I feel that individuals are always pushing the status quo. Youtuber Joanna Ceddia creates content that has been extremely popular seeing her extreme growth. However, her set up and equipment is not of the "highest" quality that is expected of most Youtubers. However, this is part of her "brand" and actually contributes to her content. I think she is an interesting example when it comes to thinking about the "poor image."