You are the problem point of view: “When you leave everything to the crowd, where everything is democratized, when everything is determined by the number of clicks, you are by definition undermining the seriousness of the artistic endeavor…There is no evidence that we are on the verge of a great new glittering cultural age, there is evidence that we may well be on the verge of a new dark age in cultural terms … where the creative world is destroyed and where all we have is cacophony and self opinion, where we have a crisis of democratized culture.” – Andrew Keen from forthcoming film PressPausePlay.
Versus
You are the future point of view: “Now, we’re a series of editors. We all recycle, clip and cut, remix and upload. We can make images do anything. All we need is an eye, a brain, a camera, a phone, a laptop, a scanner, a point of view…We’re making more than ever, because our resources are limitless and the possibilities endless … We want to give this work a new status…Things will be different from here on …” -curators of group photography show From Here On. Arles, France
The above two opposing points of view are from this article in The Guardian by photography writer Sean O’Hagan. As far as I’m concerned, this is a non-debate. Let’s get real – it’s all the future. And you are are a part of it. The world… is NOT determined by a series of clicks. Nor does new work get a new status by simply being created. There is still merit, and there are still gatekeepers. It’s just that there are more exciting viewpoints than before AND that the keys to the gates are held by a new, different, larger and emerging cross section of the population.
And most importantly….
The future of photography –as has always been with the future of art– is cumulative, not partitive. Just like Warhol didn’t undo Monet, and Mapplethorpe did not undo Cartier-Bresson, we will retain the vision of the photographic masters who have preceded us. And we will reconcile those works with your work and my work and what’s hanging at the ICP, and the Met and MOMA, and Gagosian, and that other gallery you’ve never heard of, and Google Street View, 3-legged cats with cameras on their necks, and webcams.
The past merges with the present to make the future. And because of all that, the photographic future looks pretty damn interesting.
“The past merges with the present to make the future. And because of all that, the photographic future looks pretty damn interesting. ”
Ah, time….that’s exactly what it’s all about! The author of the article is focusing on the connection between digital and democratization when really we should all be focusing on the connection between digital and time….past, present, future
Most of us tend to think of digital in terms of “the moment” and instant gratification. New technology has made it easier to create and faster to communicate than ever before. But digital is also making it possible for us to archive and recall memory faster than ever before. This means that the moment (present) is directly COMPETING with the past in a way that it has never done before.
Pop culture is about the moment and instant gratification. It reacts to and destroys the past while investing nothing in the future. The lifespan of each pop culture trend lasts only about 2-4 years before being replaced by something else. Anything that is “cool today” is “lame tomorrow.” But digital puts the past in direct competition with the moment. The past never goes away in the digital era so pop culture can’t react to or destroy it. Anything that is created now will spend the least amount of it’s life in the moment and the bulk of it’s life in the future past. The moment is the least important aspect of time in the digital era. The past and future are all that matter.
Are we heading for a dark age? No, we are heading for a new-classicism. Digital is destroying pop culture because it makes the past and future more important than the present. The only work that will survive the coming era will have to be timeless and connected to universal values. Democratization creates great pop artists but terrible classical artists. In the end, democratization is meaningless because pop culture is dying. The new culture that is emerging will be based on classical sensibilities and academic art values rather than the instant gratification and “just do it” mentality of the pop artist.
Hopefully, that is how things will be shaped – based on academic art values.
However, I believe the instant culture is still on the wave, and shows little signs of letting go.
I think that culturally we are at a stall, trying to draw Mona Lisa by connecting the dots: from one instant cultural point to another and then to another. Horizontally. In 0.4 second shutter lag and 12-minute presentations.
Rarely trying to go at a deeper level, vertically. We have to remember that things last only when they grow roots.
Are we surfing or planting?
Great point and I totally agree. Moving forward, no matter in what direction, doesn’t undo what’s gone before; you can never be ‘the past’ with what you’re doing right now. As long as people continue to put their own personalities, styles and viewpoints into their work, the future of photography as an art form is assured.
Inspiring message.