Church Table

When taking the above photos I was heavily influenced by a new aesthetic that I have been noticing more and more in the past year. I don't know what to call it but the images I'm talking about are often dark; can include fire, crystals, rainbows or prisms; and seem to be about fantasy. To see what I'm talking about check out Noel Rodo-Vankeulen's Nocturne series, Hannah Whitaker, Tim Davis, and Jason Lazarus. I don't have a firm grasp on what this is all about or where it comes from but upon talking to an old photo prof of mine about a class that he is creating (on how new developments in photographic technology have affected our aesthetic throughout photographic history) a lightbulb lit up in my head. Does this have to do with the advent of digital photography? Since digital cameras don't have the latitude that film does we often underexpose in order to keep some information in the highlights. This results in overall darker images and maybe this is why we are seeing photographers embrace deep and dark shadows. Or maybe it is simply due to the fact that shooting digitally we rely on computer chips and zeros and ones, and how the camera that used to just be a box has now become a magical thing. Are photographers trying to express how this technology shift is psychologically effecting their relationship to the medium? Or maybe it's about the prevalence of Photoshop in photography? Or maybe it's the influence of video games? Or maybe it's none of these things. Maybe it's about something much deeper that I'm just not getting, and as Joerg says at the end of the day the medium shouldn't be the message. What do you think?