Ever since its debut in 1826, the art medium of photography has been constantly revolutionizing. But long gone are those days in which a darkroom with a special type of photo paper, a developer, and a fixer are used to transform negatives into full-sized photographs worthy of being framed and hung on your dining room wall. Today, smartphone cameras, photo editing apps, and social media have given us the freedom to take thousands of professional-like quality pictures with something so small that it fits in the back pocket of your jeans.
Photography used to be a passion. It used to be about telling a story through which words couldn't even convey. It was about making a great picture rather than simply taking a great picture. It was never about being at the right place at the right time, but realizing that this is the right place in this very moment because there is no better time than now. It used to about imperfection and imperfection was what made a shot perfect. It used to be about both simplicity and complexity simultaneously, without question; the audience would just get it. It used to be left up to the imagination. Photography used to be about patience and inspiration instead of convenience and "filtering".
In a day and age in which "professional" digital cameras-you know the fancy expensive ones with the thirteen different lenses and buttons that serve some purpose unknown to you-are being left almost strictly to the, wait for it, professionals. Smartphone cameras are snapping anything and everything that's in front of them. We use terms such as "put a filter on it," and "there's an app you can use to edit that," and "this is Insta worthy," and "let's take an artsy pic." And frankly, today, the "artsier" your picture is, the more likes it's going to get, the more comments you will receive, and you will feel more like a real photographer. but that's just the problem with photography today: we're taking pictures not for the joy of getting the perfect shot, but for the number of likes on a social media platform that won't be relevant in twenty years.
Being someone who has grown up along with all these technological advancements and has watched the emergence and growth of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, VSCO, and more, I'll admit that I have not neglected to use these sites to my advantage when I want to get the pictures I take out into cyberspace or wherever they go. But it's not for praise or for recognition-it's for the passion of creating a perfect photograph.
It's for all the time I spent looking at photographs of people, places, and things and falling in love with the camera. It's for the years I spent learning about the camera and how to use it and what photography is about. It's for the love and appreciation of the art. As an aspiring photographer, I long to see the day where conventional photography captures a feeling as opposed to a moment in time.
