I heard it again yesterday for the billionth time: “Digital Photography”. Isn’t it time we drop the word ‘digital’?
Seems we’ve managed to drop the “electric” from “electric guitar” in common parlance.
We found it easy to drop the word “acrylic” from “acrylic painting” when that came on the scene with oils.
We quickly ditched the “digital” from “digital music” when it took the lead over records and tapes and CDs.
I suppose by-and-large our industry has dropped the word, but given that digital and analog photography are fundamentally the same thing, isn’t it time we implore the rest of the world to assimilate the term “digital photography” back into “photography” as a whole?
As a film lover, I appreciate the distinction. Is it 100% necessary all the time? Of course not. Sadly, I assume most people are digital photographers until I see their work or hear otherwise so it’s almost pointless to have to use the word ‘digital’. I’ll be using the words ‘film photographer’ since I’m now in the elite and beloved minority 😀
I agree that people should stop saying “digital photography.” They should start calling it “digital imaging” because it is morphing into a completely separate medium from film photography.
I agree Chase. It is still just photography.
Although I know that a lot of people want to know how a picture was created. I just have to laugh when people feel like “Digital” is cheating.
I guess watercolor is cheating when you love oil, people just have more options of and variety of things to love now.
I don’t really agree with the original statement – I have film cameras and digital cameras. I have acoustic guitars and electric guitars. They’re very different. To those that know, they, the guitars, are Taylors, or Telecasters or Strats. To those that don’t, they’re either acoustic or electric. I see no harm in being semantically correct.
Go to an art gallery and the caption next to a piece will read ‘oil on canvas’ or ‘pastel on brown paper’ or ‘acrylic on board’ etc. I live in London and just yesterday I went to the Tate gallery to look at Muybridge photographs and other shows. The captions were all fantastically detailed in their description of process and media used. For some it seems to matter.
I hope you have better weather than we do…
Been saying this for ages! Photography is photography!!!