The Cell Phone and Photography

Jeff Berg sent this link along and I found it challenging reading. I hope you will find this is a worthy and thought provoking article.

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/11/stephen-mayes-vii-photography/

Jeff uses the iPhone a lot. I don’t have an iPhone anymore since I have moved to an android which doesn’t have a great camera, but the analysis in this article could well be spot on. I seldom see small cameras at events anymore, I do see more cell phones and the users comment on how much easier it is to carry one device. It is the probably the biggest movement in photography today. Maybe bigger than the arrival of the Kodak, which was culture changing. I do fear the loss of prints, however, as digital storage is at serious risk and too many images are casually entrusted to social sites and most end up too small for prints, if they are ever even saved by some soul or another. We could easily lose the majority of what in the past would have been smallish prints tucked into albums or shoeboxes for posterity, discovered by delighted grandchildren years later. That said, it is a strong movement and unlikely to slow down anytime soon. However, it could also make serious photography even more important since it is in the hands of people who should understand the technology of fine prints and the accompanying storage issues. It could also force serious photographers into taking more important images rather than the multitude of pretty and colorful sunsets, charming landscapes, and ‘perfect’ portraits that say little or nothing about the subjects (which is not to say we should cease taking said images, I assure you – they hopefully sell well and look simply lovely on the wall). But perhaps it is time we also began to think about what we are putting into the visual conversation we are having with our viewers. Originally patrons hired artists to create grand and beautiful images as a statement on the success of the patrons and to record images of their families, but ultimately the artist drifted into a conversation with the viewer (patrons and the citizen alike) on culture, life, behavior, reality, truth and lie. Perhaps as we read this article we can find time to think of our own photographic art and our own photographic conversations.