“I can’t get over the feeling that pictures taken with a camera in a phone that everyone owns [iphone] have no value.” – Excerpt from APhotoEditor, Drowning in Photography
Sorry APE, forgive me for being prescriptive, but you’d better get over that feeling.
Just because “everyone’s doing it” — because there are a lot of photos out there in the world — doesn’t mean photography is headed for the shitter.
Two counter points cutting through to some clarity:
1. A similar argument “everyone’s doing it so photography is now lowbrow” was used in 1895 when Kodak developed roll film that could be loaded in daylight. The professionals argued that craft was now “completely lost to the amateurs”. Obviously that played out as an error in thinking, since nearly all the modern photographic “masters” have grown into being since this time in 1895, not before.
It’s just like your favorite band getting famous and then hating them for it, or talking shit about Nike and wearing Converse high tops – there’s no truth there. Nirvana changed music forever, regardless of how popular they became, and Nike owns Converse. The complaint about value is more about protecting the egos of hipsters, than a reflection of reality.
Now, before all photographers who have to work harder to make a living because of this (of which I am one) get mad, … we should remember #2:
2. Sure professional photographers must work harder today to differentiate their work, but that’s the case with almost every profession that invokes technology, or the fusion of technology and creativity. It gets harder to make the “same as it used to be” living over time in a crowded market. But this is not something that only photographers have to contend with. Almost ALL these such markets are getting more crowded. What marketplace stands still for its masses? None. Welcome to a nearly ubiquitous truth.
So, as I advocated in my Dasein Project, it might not be what some photographers want to hear, but let’s think of this a little differently. I prefer to make the argument that the snapshot has become perhaps the most human, the most important photography of our modern era. Professionals are still relevant for making statements and defining brands, genres, and movements, but it’s the snapshot that is today carrying the most metaphysical weight. Sure they’re everywhere, but that doesn’t make them worthless.
A great quote from a paper by Mia Fineman, photography curator at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, comes to mind…
“We take snapshots to commemorate important events, to document our travels, to see how we look in pictures, to eternalize the commonplace, to extract some thread of continuity from the random fabric of experience. We try to impose a kind of order, but sometimes the process backfires, and the messy contingency of the world rushes back in, bringing with it a metaphoric richness that parallels that of dreams. The amateur photo-album is an anthology of errors: there are tilted horizons, amputated heads, looming shadows, blurs, lens flares, underexposures, overexposures, and inadvertant double exposures. And while not every bungled snapshot is a minor miracle, some seem to tap into a sort of free-floating visual intelligence that runs through the bedrock of the everyday like a vein of gold.”
So let’s reconsider the snooty position. Of course curators are important, whether that’s your friends Tumblr site or the MOMA, but with more cameras and more photos than ever before–and even BETTER photos–shouldn’t it be said that we’re not drowning in photography at all, that we’re perhaps getting metaphorically rich off more and more of these veins of gold?
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts Chase, I find this piece highly relevant with the scene now.
From my take when asked about a matter like this, I personally liken photography to other creative endeavors – chefs, writers, musicians. Cameras are tools to us, alike knives to chefs, pens to writers, and musical instruments to musicians. Having a thousand dollar knife doesn’t promise a good dish nor does a cheap knife bought down the street from the supermarket promises a bad dish. A similar case to writers, those who can write, will produce good materials despite having only a piece of paper and a 2 years-old crayon set at hand. The bottom line stand I feel, that the people who are able to bring “THE STUFF”, will bring the stuff despite the tools used.
Having said that, it saddens me to have read that excerpt which is somewhat materialistically-driven, a disgrace to art.
Regards,
Nick.
Well argued. A photo is a photo, doesn’t matter what it’s taken with. People don’t take photos for photography, the majority don’t care it the heads cut off, it a bit blurry, or badly composed! And rightly so!
Couldn’t agree MORE! Amen, homie…amen.
Truth. Really great stance on this subject. No art form or market place will remain the same and avoiding change will ultimately leave you in a lonely boat floating in the past. Change is tough but awesome at the same time. A great man once told me “the minute you think you know what’s going on, you’re completely fucked.” That changed my life.
Amen
It really annoys me when so called ‘masters’ of photography say that a photo taken on an iPhone is worth less. Some of my most prized and special photos have been taken on an iPhone, as you said just because everyones does it doesn’t make it uncool suddenly!
And the professional photographers getting cross at people who are supposedly taking their jobs, In my view thats a sign that the ‘professionals’ need to up their game more. In fact the weekend photographer is beneficial to professional photographers because they constantly force the pros to become better and not sit around and never innovating. 🙂
Annie Leibowitz said the the best camera in the world is the one you have with you…meaning an iphone. I agree some of the best images come from a camera phone. You make a good point about the pro photographer benefiting from the amateur and keeps the pros on their toes.
“Innovate” for innovations sake? Really? Amateurs are kicking “pros” in the ass? Oh, hail the weekend DB with his 70-300 and 30 gb cards…
A disclaimer about the “pros”…never a bigger group of DB’s anywhere…just head over to LL and you will see my point.
Best quote, I think:
“Amateurs worry about equipment.
Pros worry about money.
Masters worry about light.
Me, I just take pictures.”
– Vernon Trent
Great point. Just because the average guy enjoys taking pictures of his family or vacation shouldn’t mean a hoot to the PROFESSIONAL. He/she has their job. They should go do better at it and let everyone else alone. Stop being a shooting snob!
Photography is made by the light…if you don’t know the light and take photographs and snapshots as they came… well…call it art of our time, if you wish, but don’t call it Photography…please!
Cell phones will never replace a real camera and you will just be laughed at of you pull out a cell phone on any job no matter how many times a commercial trys to tell you a a student with a cell phone is give a half million dollar high fashion shoot. you know why your pictures are crap because you used a cell phone get a real camera kid.