has becoming digital destroyed our respect?
Hear me out. It seems that every person I know at various papers throughout the country are having the same problem. Photography is losing respect in the newsroom. Sure, there are other issues going on as well---but I think a big part of the problem starts with respect. Reporters are getting video equipment and camera phones. Camera phones? Generally speaking, reporters do a better job with the writing for the paper and the photographers do a better job with the visuals. When did that change? Papers are becoming so obsessed with timeliness they are sacrificing quality. Do we really think a reporter can take a better picture now with a smaller, less technically and worse quality camera? Or when an executive editor in a budget meeting suggest he can shoot the a1 centerpiece?
A wise photographer once told me that the over reliance on technology was why the real storytellers and good image-makers were disappearing and why there were so many button pushers appearing. The high quality cameras on the market now have made it a lot easier for regular people to become photographers. These new breeds of “photographers” go around offering their work for free because they do it as a hobby. It's not their passion. It is not their livelihood.
I became a photographer at the end of the film era and the beginning of the digital era. I learned how to shoot on slide and negative film. I learned how to print in a darkroom. I mixed chemicals. I made dodging tools with wire, cardboard and tape. Things have changed- now everyone has these tools on their computer. And they use them.
Digital has brought some good changes to our industry and has helped advanced it. We are at a greater level than ever before. But it is hard to appreciate all the good when, in my opinion, we have lost something greater. Respect. Everyone out there is a "photographer" now. And everyone thinks they can do your job better than you. Some photographers will always be at the top, above the rest---no matter what happens. But what happens to the rest of us? What happens when the level of respect goes even lower and the people that truly are passionate about photography merge into the rest of the button pushers?
More importantly, how do we gain the respect back before it completely disappears?
A wise photographer once told me that the over reliance on technology was why the real storytellers and good image-makers were disappearing and why there were so many button pushers appearing. The high quality cameras on the market now have made it a lot easier for regular people to become photographers. These new breeds of “photographers” go around offering their work for free because they do it as a hobby. It's not their passion. It is not their livelihood.
I became a photographer at the end of the film era and the beginning of the digital era. I learned how to shoot on slide and negative film. I learned how to print in a darkroom. I mixed chemicals. I made dodging tools with wire, cardboard and tape. Things have changed- now everyone has these tools on their computer. And they use them.
Digital has brought some good changes to our industry and has helped advanced it. We are at a greater level than ever before. But it is hard to appreciate all the good when, in my opinion, we have lost something greater. Respect. Everyone out there is a "photographer" now. And everyone thinks they can do your job better than you. Some photographers will always be at the top, above the rest---no matter what happens. But what happens to the rest of us? What happens when the level of respect goes even lower and the people that truly are passionate about photography merge into the rest of the button pushers?
More importantly, how do we gain the respect back before it completely disappears?
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