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Flickring Out - the future of photojournalism

johnastovall

Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
Flickring Out

What will become of photojournalism in an age of bytes and amateurs?

By Alissa Quart

"Clichés are sometimes true. Here’s one—photographers don’t like to give speeches. At a recent event, photographer Antonin Kratochvil screened slideshows of his work: American soldiers coolly observing the Iraqi distressed and dead; Lebanese militant youths standing restlessly near decaying walls; American evangelicals speaking in tongues. The photographer then clambered onstage, ruddy and scarf-wrapped (“The Bedoins wear them!”) for his talk, but he was no Christopher Hitchens. He hated talking about himself—as uncomfortable in the role of sage as the rest of us would be in a war zone—and he left the stage with half the time for his “speech” unused, encouraging his audience to spend it smoking cigarettes instead. Kratochvil is not alone in his taciturnity. When I recently asked one of the greats of the form for his thoughts, he e-mailed the aphorism: “To live happy, live hidden.”

Read it all, interesting, thought provoking.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Interesting for sure John... A tangent, but realated note: I remember once a while back reading some of Galen Rowell's notes where he claimed his passion was writing, and he needed to "add" photography so his writing would get noticed.

How ironic...
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I once had a discussion with a depressed photographer that was lamenting the ubiquitousness of amateur picture takers and the rising tsunami of images ... that was 30 years ago. He probably killed himself by now.

A professor of Oriental languages once explained to me that in Japan everyone practices the art of Sumi-e to some degree or another, but the masters of it are revered as national treasures. IMO, there-in lies the problem. While many here practice photography, there is little recognition of mastery.

No where is this more prevelant than with the mundane art of wedding photography. Every mother's son who buys a Rebel Xi and 18-5000 zoom is suddenly a wedding photographer ... and few recognize the difference.
 
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