Don’t get mad or anything, but technology may have killed photography. No, not photography in the “pose drunk for Facebook” sense (that’s not likely to go away any time soon), but in the “Robert Capa/I’m showing you the truth/it’s an art form” sense. That’s what Newsweek says this week, lamenting the influx of reality-altering software like Photoshop and the proliferation of cheap, garbage cameras on cellphones. Photography used to be an art, accessible only to those who could afford pricey cameras and who understood how to compose a photography. Then companies like Kodak brought it to the masses, ruining rich kids’ fun. It’s a damn shame.
So go ahead, enjoy your 12-megapixel SLR. Just know that you’re killing snooty artistic types with every skin tone adjustment you make in Photoshop.
Is Photography Dead? [Newsweek]