The death of photography?

[John Morrison]

Thoughts on the way things are in photography... http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/13/death-of-photography-camera-phones

[SShep]

Beat me to it by 12 minutes - just came here to flag up the same article.

Best use I've found for a smartphone was when I licenced a photo of mine.

 

Steve

[Mirco Vacca]

I still think that a magazine publisher will still not go himself out with the smartphone to take a image he needs for a magazine. Time is money so stockphotos will be still bought.

 

My thinking..... correct me when i am wrong.

 

 

Mirco

[John Mitchell]

Interesting, I find that I'm actually MORE likely to remember something or someone if I photograph the subject. On a good day, I can run through just about every image I've taken in my head. But then I don't own a smartphone, and the thought of taking a "selfie" terrifies me at this point. 

[spacecadet]

Unfortunately my new A55 has an articulated screen. Very tempting. Usually it's just me and 'er indoors in our posh kit at ladies' nights, but who knows....?

[John Morrison]

the thought of taking a "selfie" terrifies me at this point. 

Me too. I don't have a mirror in the house. Even the picture in my passport is of Harold Shipman...

[losdemas]

I think that the last paragraph in that piece is the most pertinent and in a way contradicts what he (Antonio Olmos) said in the first paragraph.

 

Para1: "There have never been so many photographs taken, but photography is dying"

Last para: "I'll survive in this profession because I have skills...just because you've got an Instagram app on your phone you aren't a great photographer."

[Ed Rooney]

Who was it that said, the opposite of a great truth is also true? 

[Robert Brook]

"He argues that in the 1850s the rise of photography made many painters, who had previously made nice livings from painting family portraits, redundant. Now it's the turn of professional photographers to join the scrap heap."

 

Photography liberated painting, so by the twentieth century photography was not even considered to be a creative medium, let alone an art form.  And with some justification.

 

Now photography is being liberated.

[Ed Endicott]

I was at a news conference this evening.  There were two people with still cameras there - myself, and a photojournalist from the Village Voice.  Everyone else was a journalist or shooting video.  The journalists were taking pics with their iPhones.  It's very sad.

[Mark]

I think that the last paragraph in that piece is the most pertinent and in a way contradicts what he (Antonio Olmos) said in the first paragraph.

 

Para1: "There have never been so many photographs taken, but photography is dying"

Last para: "I'll survive in this profession because I have skills...just because you've got an Instagram app on your phone you aren't a great photographer."

 

Or another way to put it: "the easier the technology becomes, the more poor photographers are exposed" ….. However, the same applies to great photographers.

 

Surely the technology is secondary.

[Phil Robinson]

There were four pictures used to illustrate the article - from Reuters, Alamy and Getty. I'm pretty sure non of them was taken on a phone.

[Paulstw]

I could buy the best camera/lens combo in the world. I could buy the new Xperia Z1 or iPhone. It's still not going to make better shots happen. Because I walk about with my camera a lot on my lunch break I actually do get the odd person who feels the need to parade their iPhone in front of my eyes to let me see their latest shot of the river I walk a long. "Oh look, if I zoom, you can see the Heron" Aye but if I zoom I can see what it's eating, and the expression on the face of it's meal. 

[Duncan_Andison]

"He argues that in the 1850s the rise of photography made many painters, who had previously made nice livings from painting family portraits, redundant. Now it's the turn of professional photographers to join the scrap heap."

 

Photography liberated painting, so by the twentieth century photography was not even considered to be a creative medium, let alone an art form.  And with some justification.

 

Now photography is being liberated.

 

Very profound..... 

 

I originally trained as an illustrator and I know for sure the average Joe Blog cannot pickup a paint brush and paint a work of art..... no matter how easy it is to get a hold of a brush / paint. It does mean more people with the right skills will have a chance to develop them though.

 

Also, if everyone submitted paintings to galleries, not just artists, you will find the occasional gem but more often than not, you will be reminded how good the artist/professional photographer is.