photos
What I intended to write about (see previous post) was digital photos. I read an AP article in yesterday's paper about how people are taking so many more photographs now, with digital cameras, than they ever were before. That there's this overload of images, and a fear that single images will lose their force & memorable quality when we are inundated with so many.
I'm not sure what I think about that. It's an interesting way to think about it - the single image losing its power. But I also think, on the pro side, that it makes it so much easier to document daily life. For anybody to do that. To make it easier to end up with a good photo and not a blurry, red eyed one. And to stay in touch with people - to put photos on a blog, or email them, and have friends across the country be able to see the Easter egg hunt at church. To me, all those benefits of connection between people outweigh any loss of memorability of a single image.
This format also lets us put up as many or as few photos as we want. Seeing them here, rather than just in an online photo album, makes them more indelible to me. I carry a lot of them around in my head, just like I do the pictures of me holding my baby sister, or Lu eating a honeydew melon larger than her head, or my family in the backyard.
It seems like, with all these photos at our fingertips, and the ease of sharing them, it's even more important that we pick good ones to share. Take more, end up with better pictures (because you can see the immediate results) and share the best. Not always the best composed, or best quality, but the most memorable ones.
I'm not sure what I think about that. It's an interesting way to think about it - the single image losing its power. But I also think, on the pro side, that it makes it so much easier to document daily life. For anybody to do that. To make it easier to end up with a good photo and not a blurry, red eyed one. And to stay in touch with people - to put photos on a blog, or email them, and have friends across the country be able to see the Easter egg hunt at church. To me, all those benefits of connection between people outweigh any loss of memorability of a single image.
This format also lets us put up as many or as few photos as we want. Seeing them here, rather than just in an online photo album, makes them more indelible to me. I carry a lot of them around in my head, just like I do the pictures of me holding my baby sister, or Lu eating a honeydew melon larger than her head, or my family in the backyard.
It seems like, with all these photos at our fingertips, and the ease of sharing them, it's even more important that we pick good ones to share. Take more, end up with better pictures (because you can see the immediate results) and share the best. Not always the best composed, or best quality, but the most memorable ones.
posted by Jess at 9:36 AM
5 Comments:
I don't think the "too many images" argument holds any water. Most of us see millions of images every day as it is.
What makes an image indelible is not the scarcity of images, but the way an image speaks to a person, society, or culture. And having more images floating around out there isn't going to change that.
For example: I have pictures of L where she's not even entirely in frame, or it's blurry, or her eyes are closed. But those are some of my favorite images, because there's something about them that just captures some aspect of her personality. I treasure them. Probably anyone else looking at them would think, "Geez. Take a photography class." But: they are images that speak to my heart.
Does that make sense?
Complete sense. Some of my favorite pictures are the 'bad' ones.
My comments are SO clogged these days. I appreciate it. (Insert eye roll).
Jess -
hey, could you send me that article or a link to it or something. i think kmy teacher from the 'lyric essay/ photographic essay' class might find it interesting...
thanks!
bronwen
I'll take a look for it - if my parents haven't tossed it yet.
I agree- the "too many images" theory is a bunch of bunk.
My dad is a professional photographer. He will often take rolls and rolls and rolls of film of a seemingly simple subject- light streaming against a stone church or a single daffodil or a baby's smile. But he's looking for that one shot that captures exactly what he wanted it to- that has the spirit or the sense of realism that the client is seeking. But the beauty is that someone else could look though those rolls and rolls of film and decide that ANOTHER single shot perfectly captured the essence of that moment.
Digital photography has certainly changed the industry. But personally, as a consumer and a VERY amateur photographer- I LOVE it.
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