Digital Media is convenient and easy to use. To produce content of reasonable standard is much easier then it once was, as the tools needed to create the content is available to the everyday computer user. Creative fields are now being filled by amateurs producing content in short periods of time with new technology. In the past, to create this content took a lot of hard work and patience. With amateurs achieving these results to an adequate standard quickly, its uncertain where that leaves professionals and highly-skilled artists. This essay will discuss where the future of photography lies with the dramatic advancements of technology.
Photography is a creative field that has been put into practice since 1827 http://clearleadinc.com/site/photography_general.html. Over that time , photography hasn’t changed much at all. In the last 100 years, the process of photography consisted of a lens attached to a box which streams light in and is then recorded onto a film plane http://www.all-things-photography.com/the-future-of-photography.html.
Since the 70s and 80s, massive progress has been made in the technological advancement of the camera. With the technology trend catching on dramatically around the 1980s, Society produced the technology generation, changing perspectives, priorites and interests (Freund, G. (1980) Photography and Society). This happened by taking on lives that are fast paced and always changing to mirror the technology advancement (Freund, G., Photography and Society (1980)).
Although in most areas of society, technology has taken over the original way of doing things, photography still remains divided between digital and film http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filmdig.htm. As with most new technologies, convenience overrules quality for many people (Ellis, J. (2005) Digital Photography, D&S Books Ltd; Devon). This has resulted in overpopulation of photography as a career as amateurs find it very easy with the aid of Digital cameras that are now produced to point and shoot without understanding the basics of photography.
Photography has always been related to art weather it was called an art form or not. In todays society it does have the label of ‘Art’ but much of the creativity has been lost by the lack of understanding by amateurs entering the field and by companies producing digital cameras, including SLR cameras that don’t require any understanding.
Photographer on Deviant Art website contemplates the future of professional photography, he talks about a Canon advertisement on television for their new line, that anyone can use this new technology and can take an image like a professional http://lukak.deviantart.com/journal/25369295/. This technology has taken all skill out of the practice. As previously stated, digital cameras are now produced with the simple process of point and shoot, taking away the artistic integrity of photography. Today, even professional cameras are designed this way and adjustments can be made on the camera as well as on the computer (Vandome, N. (2005), Digital Photography, in easy steps, Barnes and Nobles Books; U.K). While some may argue that if the job of taking a photo is really that easy and mechanical that everyone would do it and argues that this is not the case and claims it to still be an art form because of an ‘essence’ that needs to be in the photo to evoke a reaction http://www.intrepidnetwork.net/professional-photography. However evidence shows that it is that simple to produce a quality photograph. With technology as advanced as it is with photo editing on computers, the simple basics of even light and composition are no longer needs as it can all be edited into the picture as though it was there all along, including ‘essence’. In the past the process of photography was to originally get a quality photo that needed little adjustment and to manipulate in the dark room involved burning to make highlights and cropping manually (Cox,J. (2003). Digital Nature Photography, Amphoto Books, New York).
A link can be drawn between the growing amount of amateur photographers beginning to enter the professional world and the age group in the working world in today’s society. Generation x and y are the primary generation groups in the professional sphere and have the reputation of ‘slackers’ (zemke, R., Raines, C., Filipczak, B., Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers and Nexters in your Workplace). This is directly related to professional photography and why the people with qualifications and are highly skilled are being pushed to the side by amateurs who are using the new technology SLR cameras to enter the field. These generations have grown up accustomed to the advancements of technology and are evolving with it. While others who are familiar with film and older processes find it difficult to catch onto the trend and get left behind http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/rise-fall.shtml.
Photography has hit a point where people don’t work to understand the fundamentals of the practice because they don’t need to. In a technological society, people don’t have the patience to wait for the perfect photo or wait for the light to be right or understanding how light and composition affect the photographs and the quality. Today, one of the only necessities of being a photographer is understanding how to use photo editing programs, everything else can be corrected through the editing http://www.all-things-photography.com/the-future-of-photography.html.
Analysing of where the future lies for photography is difficult. A member on the ‘ATP Photography’ website has the belief that all things have a limit and often when a craft hits that point, it has the choice of going back the way it came, working back towards a more pure and basic form of photography. Ultimately, to get back to a point of knowing that the photographer has worked and studied hard to understand how to take a photograph as a work of art and had the patience to get the perfect photograph as naturally as possible http://www.all-things-photography.com/the-future-of-photography.html.
