Robin Burden answered
Although many people see the fusing of information technology and photography as a generally-positive thing, there are a handful of negative consequences that are worth considering:
I personally love technology. I rely on my laptop and smartphone to get through the day, and IT has certainly facilitated my life in more ways than I'm probably even aware of.
However, despite all the joy that information technology has given me, it has also had a significant detrimental effect on photography: For starters, programs like Adobe Photoshop have taken all the natural beauty and talent out of photography.
Nowadays, it doesn't really matter whether the subject, the photographer, or the camera are flawed - everything can be 'touched up' or edited in an image-editing suite.
This has made it really difficult to distinguish between genuine photographic talent and good editing skills.
What's so bad about photography?
I also think that technology has altered our relationship with photographs.
I remember the days of looking at photographs of family and friends in a photo-album, with actual glossy pictures staring back at me...
Somehow, that process always felt a lot more personal and 'real' to me than does the instantaneous flicking through of Facebook photo-albums that technology has afforded us.
How has IT affected photographers?
If you ever speak to a photographer about the dangers of Google Image Search, you'll soon understand just how much of a threat this type of technology poses to the industry.
Nowadays, photos can be uploaded and shared (often without permission from the owner). Before you know it, an image that took money, effort and dedication to capture is being copied and pasted - as if it was worth nothing!
This is a major problem for anyone who's hoping to make their living through photography.
Also, in the past, people were more inclined to commission photographers to provide the images that they needed (for magazines or journals, for example). These days, most images can be downloaded on-line instead.
- Technology makes it difficult to appreciate the true artistic merit of photography.
- Technology has desensitized the medium of photography.
- The ease with which technology has allowed pictures to be shared means that their monetary value has decreased significantly.
I personally love technology. I rely on my laptop and smartphone to get through the day, and IT has certainly facilitated my life in more ways than I'm probably even aware of.
However, despite all the joy that information technology has given me, it has also had a significant detrimental effect on photography: For starters, programs like Adobe Photoshop have taken all the natural beauty and talent out of photography.
Nowadays, it doesn't really matter whether the subject, the photographer, or the camera are flawed - everything can be 'touched up' or edited in an image-editing suite.
This has made it really difficult to distinguish between genuine photographic talent and good editing skills.
What's so bad about photography?
I also think that technology has altered our relationship with photographs.
I remember the days of looking at photographs of family and friends in a photo-album, with actual glossy pictures staring back at me...
Somehow, that process always felt a lot more personal and 'real' to me than does the instantaneous flicking through of Facebook photo-albums that technology has afforded us.
How has IT affected photographers?
If you ever speak to a photographer about the dangers of Google Image Search, you'll soon understand just how much of a threat this type of technology poses to the industry.
Nowadays, photos can be uploaded and shared (often without permission from the owner). Before you know it, an image that took money, effort and dedication to capture is being copied and pasted - as if it was worth nothing!
This is a major problem for anyone who's hoping to make their living through photography.
Also, in the past, people were more inclined to commission photographers to provide the images that they needed (for magazines or journals, for example). These days, most images can be downloaded on-line instead.
