I love it when photographers say something like, “It’s not about the tech.” That’s truly wrong — a pinhole camera can’t shoot sports in the same way that a Sony a9 III can. But there’s something to be said for the wisdom of what Zack Arias said many years ago: what matters is the moron behind the camera. And this I feel is also very true. But if camera technology has massively improved on the past two decades, why hasn’t photography? Why has photography instead become all about copying one another and repeating whatever gets us the most views? Obviously, the attention economy is a major problem when it comes to photographers making innovative things if that’s what they’re targeting. But the truth is that social media and the attention economy aren’t the real world. What instead matters more are how photos are looked at off of social media.
I just spent the better part of a week with men in the photo industry born in a time way before mine. They were all about absolute sharpness and how they see the world like that. And they wanted nothing to do with blur or anything else. They’re just about capturing reality — which isn’t truly possible with digital because camera sensors and processors tend to throw away most of the information anyway. Film is more capable in a way — but either way, it’s still just capturing an interpretation of reality.
Photographers have always become less creative in-camera. Instead, they rely on hours and hours of post-production and live stream themselves for adoring fans.
And that is the problem. Photographers are doing too much work just to please others and looking for external validation instead of getting real with themselves.
Here’s the truth, our vision is getting worse and worse because we’re all staring at screens so often. Couple that with the fact that people aren’t going to the eye doctor’s or refuse to wear glasses and corrective lenses. This means that we’re not even seeing as clearly as we used to.
We’re also not even using our imagination anymore. Instead, we’re copying what we see in the movies, on social media, etc. But the key to making really good photography that people will want to stare at for a while is to throw them off of what reality is. But more importantly, we should create in a way that doesn’t look like something that would’ve been made with an AI prompt of some sort.
In the end, photographers and photography need to create in ways that challenge them and in ways that are incredibly unique. and there are lots of ways to do this. They just need to come up with different combinations and experiments to express themselves.
Here’s an idea: think of a feeling. And then think about what that feeling looks, sounds, smells, and tastes like. Then make that into a photograph and make it as unique as possible without using Photoshop, Capture One, Lightroom, or any post-production. Do it in-camera.