Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/08/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Aug 9, 2009, at 8:52 PM, Steve Barbour wrote: > >> from NYT... >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/media/10photo.html?_r=1 >> >> >> does anyone see an opportunity for rejuvenation? >> ---------- The demise of photojournalism is a natural concomitant of technical advances in image making. I groaned when automatic everything cameras obsoleted all my hard won knowledge of focusing, setting exposure, and adjusting shutter speeds. I moaned when digital cameras obsoleted my darkroom skills. Now the creative aspects of photography have been diminished as well. The public cares little for nicely composed images. Just the facts, mam. With 50 million picture capable cell phones in the hands of the US public and another hundred million world wide, it is almost a certainty that someone will capture an image of every newsworthy event. The riots in Iran and the hanging of Saddam Hussein are two cases in point. No professional photojournalist was there for the hanging and few were on site in Iran. But the cell phone images ran in the papers and on TV. Two hundred years ago, if you wanted a picture of grandmother on the wall, you hired a portrait painter. Affluent Dutch merchants hired Rembrandt. Where are the portrait painters today? Replaced by photographers. And now the photographers are losing out to the digital P&S and cell phone. We had a good lock on the imaging market for 150 years. Today photojournalists are in the same league as the buggy whip makers. Incidentally, my son-in-law, a news anchor for an ABC affiliate TV station in a major market was issued both a photo capable cell phone and a Kodak HD pocket sized video camera. He is to snap photos and videos of news worthy events whenever he comes across them. The pictures cannot be used on air (yet) because that would violate the news cameramen's union contract but they are prominently displayed on the station's web site. The station has fired most of its studio camera operators, camera positioning being done by computer controlled by the director. Larry Z