Diminution of the photograph?

[DrEntropy]

With every man and his dog walking around with a cellphone camera in their hand, clicking away at anything that moves, are there any meaningful images anymore? If there are they more often than not getting buried in the clutter.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in when it comes to digital imaging. Instant gratification and all that. But there are comparatively few photos deliberately composed and intentionally shot, compared to the volume of images we're inundated with on a daily basis. From the guy standing with cellphone in hand, showing another person "This is my family, this is my son, my car, last Christmas..." Flicking a finger across a three-inch screen, half-second intervals, to seeing Facebook and the rest, with images of the same. It just doesn't seem to have much import somehow. Seeing a dresser top with framed photos of folks past and present, a bookcase with framed images of family and friends, an album of pictures going back generations. Those things seem to be now replaced with that swipe of a finger and a glance. Galleries, for the most part supplanted by on-line photo aggregating businesses like Shutterfly, Shutterstock, Zenfolio, etc. Are there photos that have not been taken? Of course. But when producing a piece for publication or an ad, most commercial houses will go with: "We need a shot of people at a desk, looking interested in the paper one of them is holding in their hand. Search Shtterstock." And among the plethora of choices, they pick one. Too generic, not relevant to who's being billed, IMHO. I know it comes down to cost. The money to hire a pro to do a session with personnel from the business as opposed to that generic image. But it would have the relevant tie-in to the client's business.

And don't get me started about photojournalism...

 

[Sherlock]

Hear Hear!

There are still lots of serious amateur and pro photographers around

What has happened over the years?

Perhaps 20 years ago lots of people carried around cheap digital cameras to take basic photos, pretty much replacing film photography for the family photos

Now the market for cheap digital cameras is gone, replaced by the improvement in cell phone cameras

I don't feel that threatened by that, the only issue I experience is the speed at which "non-photographers" post photos of the same event I might have been at it, but because I'm more careful with my edits, and at times I'm a sloth at photo editing, and I don't post every single photo I take

In the local car scene I go to lots of classic car events, another guy with a cell phone does as well, he probably just dumps photos from his phone onto his computer (and maybe not even that) so he is the first person to post anything from that cruise night, while I have some quality control

My photos of car events focus much more on overall atmosphere (AKA street photography), and the overall scene, I don't go around and photograph every car, especially when I've seen that car 10,000 times already, most car guys just want to see the car photos and probably don't get what I'm after

This other person gets far more glory than me even with his rather average photo quality... I take in the atmosphere and hunt around for the right photo... I also rarely post in those groups anymore because no one hardly even cares about my approach, and I don't care anyway...

To illustrate, this photo is rather deliberate, not random, most people would think it's just a random crowd photo, but I analyze "patterns" within crowds

 

[DrEntropy]

James, I've said it before. You've got an ability to grab some magnificent images. Your "people shots" are delightful. I go back to your shot of the girl painter with the ladder. A charming spontaneous image, a treasure.

I don't feel that threatened by that, the only issue I experience is the speed at which "non-photographers" post photos of the same event I might have been at it, but because I'm more careful with my edits, and at times I'm a sloth at photo editing, and I don't post every single photo I take

Be more prolific here! For one, I really like your timing. To blazes with the snapshooters dump-posting the mundane stuff. You are right to never feel threatened. It used to be a habit for me to wait for a week or so before I'd choose the shots that made visual 'sense.' That was in the days of contact sheets, the visual impact over favored shots at the time they were taken made more sense. A bit of "distance" is a good thing. Objectivity.

 

[GregW]

Photography was claimed by some to be the end of painting. Some painters even killed themselves over it I've read. They were probably crappy painters. Then paint by numbers came along and saved the medium. Photography I think is in the paint by numbers phase. People who aren't photographers have a venue. 40 years ago it was the family get together with "that" uncle with his slide show and the captive audience. My step father was a horrible camera guy. Always wanted us to stand next to each other during vacation to remember the moment. My mom had only one pose, arms at her side with a grin. The family album could have had one shot of her pasted over different backgrounds. All that to say there has always been noise, we were just protected from it by distance. Cell phones wipe that distance away. Years ago, John Dvorak wrote a column wondering what the next "Killer App" was gonna be after Lotus 123. History shows us what that was.