Both the bane and the benefit of photography in the Modern Age is camera technology that enables the novice photographer to produce a convincing photographic representation without much training, artistic inclination, or investment expense. Currently, introductory cameras (point-and-shoot compacts, cell phone cameras, entry-level DSLRs, etc.) are so fully automated that almost anyone can pick one up and immediately make a decent picture. This fact implies that photography is not always as complicated as photographers make it seem. For individuals attempting to professionalize the activity of taking photographs, this represents a dilemma; how does one take advantage of streamlining technology, while at the same time, preserving the role of the operator as a necessary component? The answer, of course, has been for the professional photographer to point to the novice photographer’s images and call them “snapshots”, or images made crudely without regard for photographic conventions.
A “snapshot”.
Tom Bennett
darteboard
galinatodorova
Jason Gray
jdhastings
laelia e. mitchell
probrucer
ssstephg
Toni Tiller
