"Is photography over?" A short article

[paulr]

Szarkowski was a rare creature who was from a different era, before the MFA rot had set in. Robert Adams is made of some of the same material as Szarkowski. But who else would you place on this list? On a related note, I have no trouble finding science journals of worth--even at a mall bookstore. What about art magazines of worth--one with intelligent art writing? They've gotten better since the 80s, I admit, but still...

It's true that Mr Adams and Mr. Szarkowski are exceptional in being good at both. But I think it's more significant that the better practitioners are rarely good critics, and vice-versa. Different job descriptions, different folks.

I don't give critics so much credit as you (or so much of a blank check).

I wouldn't give anyone a blank check. A good critical argument needs to be supported. It's not one that you accept because you're wowed by someone's authority, it's one that actually helps you see more. Good critics and curators and editors sometimes see more in a work (or at least see something different) than the person who made it. Same with good teachers. I've had all kinds of things pointed out to me about my own work. By people who, most significantly, were not me.

This isn't to dispute your point that there are charlatans. I just think we need to be careful about calling people that based on nothing but their job description.

You know more about the current MFA programs than I do, I'm sure. But I haven't the sense that there has been any renaissance in the MFA world.

I don't know much about the programs, just people who have been through some of them. As individuals, they don't conform to very many stereotypes.

I also don't know about any kind of renaissance ... but if the programs were as dubious as their reputations back in the '80s, then anything that came after might look like a renaissance.

[Ken Lee]

...have you ever seen the people who draw shapes on classic, acknowledged photographs in an attempt to show the photographer was applying classic rules of perspective, the golden triangle, etc? It's a hoot.

Like this one ?

Under the ground glass it might have been a bit more obvious

[Christopher Barrett]

I confess, I have a Golden Ratio grid printed out on acetate mounted over the ground glass of my Hasselblad.

[David_Senesac]

An interesting short essay thankyou. The real title should have been posed:

Is Traditional Photography Over?

And the answer would be a resounding YES. One thing that does is make the high end photography art world less relevant so no wonder there is uneasiness and reassessments. But being at the knee of change is not a time to be able to easily predict what is to come. And it affects not just the audience the author addressed.

For instance as the economy began to collapse in 2008, I exited my modest small business selling prints and went back to my hi tech career that was a more certain source of steady income. Thus from my tiny perspective it has been over on that level for a time. But it was not just because of the economy collapsing that I bailed. The rise of digital photography and especially the rise of digital cameras with the Internet awash in myriad images makes commercial notions too much a gamble for those with small resources.

But I also think we may be on a threshold of a new way to present photography. Ultra hi definition 4k by 2k pixel computer display monitor products are appearing on the consumer electronics marketplace. 5k by 3k have also just appeared. Video wall technology using multiple display panels ie 2x2, 2x3, 3x3 is already a reality. Thus for the first time those with large format work will have the potential to actually display at near pixel resolution on such displays that is going impress and surprise. We older folks with large bodies of work have a potential to leverage that commercially as exhibits in ways one might only speculate on.

[Darin Boville]

But I also think we may be on a threshold of a new way to present photography. Ultra hi definition 4k by 2k pixel computer display monitor products are appearing on the consumer electronics marketplace.

I cannot agree more. I have a 55-inch 4k display. Looking at a still image on it is simply stunning. You can walk right up to it and be impressed. Couldn't do that at that size with 1080p. I run slideshows on it all the time. Just amazing.

--Darin

[paulr]

Is Traditional Photography Over?

And the answer would be a resounding YES.

I think ideas like this are sneaky ... they don't admit it, but they're really about the power struggle for defining "traditional" photography.

When I look at the history of the medium, I see many, many branches of it, each looking different, with each one changing and evolving along the way, whether in response to cultural changes, technical ones, or to the work that had been done previously. I don't see some linear thing, where where there was a kind of photography that everyone agreed was the real deal—one that went unchanged for a long time before some sudden break.

[Drew Wiley]

Viewing images on a digital screen, no matter how fancy, has about as much appeal to me as looking at a backlit Hamm's beer logo in the window of some redneck dive. People will buy a ticket and stand in long lines to see real painting by old masters. If you showed them to them on a display, they might as well be shopping at Costco for a big screen TV they can watch then next Superbowl on with all their buddies. A 1950's slide projector will give a better show.

[paulr]

Thank you Drew for speaking on behalf of not just everyone, but everyone of the future. A rare gift.

[Drew Wiley]

You're welcome. You know the difference between new money and old money, and why the old money people despise the new money crowd? (I can address this
objectively because I'm in the "no money" middle-caste myself). Bill Gates spendt a ton of money to put digital display panels in the bedrooms of his big house so
his guests could choose whatever famous painting they preferred on any given day. Now of course just about everyone can afford something like that, but back then
they were really really expensive to make. Now here's a guy that can afford to buy the real deal from time to time, and he does that???? Cannibal in a tophat syndrome. But my remark was in reference to what Darin suggested. He's at a location where the potential clientele are rich techies. They're not going to be impressed with anyone's latest monitor or whatever, because they design and market those things and are already fifteeen steps ahead of us. But hopefully, what they cannot do is make interesting actual prints, even though they design a lot of that technology too. And frankly, some of them covet handmade rather than digital work because they admire it - it's something different from their day job. Just reviewing a portfolios alias might be logically done on a laptop today, just like it was with a slide projector in days of yore, but unless it's an interior decorator just shopping for color above a sofa, I'm skeptical of its effectiveness. If people wanted
virtual prints - essentially glorified screensavers - they can just download them for free, or almost free.

[Mark Sawyer]

Photography has been "over" since Karsh photographed Audrey Hepburn. Nothing worthwhile has been done since. Maybe nothing before, either...