Herein lies the future

[kbg32]

Kevin, some people want to explore "art" without the personal connection to the subject or having been there. Look at the "post-modernists". They appropriated imagery. Even Winogrand liked to have his images sit awhile before he developed them. He felt that his emotions photographing would influence his choices afterwards if he immediately developed the film. Sometimes his film sat so long before he processed them, he didn't remember taking them!

Frankly, I can't see the emotional joy in sitting at desk somewhere and remotely taking images off a video screen miles away. Might be great for the military, but I can't exist being so disconnected.

 

[Papercut]

Keith, I agree entirely. After I hit <enter> to post, it occurred to me that the shy person who wants to take candids of strangers could easily welcome these new technologies with much relief! 😀 I think I'm the same as you: it's too disconnected for me. (I spend too much of my day in front of a screen as it is -- photography is one of the few parts of my life that gets me up on my feet and outside.

I still wonder about the logistics of sorting through gigabytes of image data. I sometimes struggle with editing just a couple hundred frames -- my heart fails me at the thought of scanning through hundreds of thousands of them! 😱

Kevin, some people want to explore "art" without the personal connection to the subject or having been there. Look at the "post-modernists". They appropriated imagery. Even Winogrand liked to have his images sit awhile before he developed them. He felt that his emotions photographing would influence his choices afterwards if he immediately developed the film. Sometimes his film sat so long before he processed them, he didn't remember taking them!

Frankly, I can't see the emotional joy in sitting at desk somewhere and remotely taking images off a video screen miles away. Might be great for the military, but I can't exist being so disconnected.

 

[kbg32]

To me, photography = life. I can appreciate those that set-up situational photo shoots, but I am not one of them. I love to explore, experience new things. Photography gives me reason to do that. It is enough to sit at a desk and work, or edit and process imagery at a computer, I would want to make images that way.

 

[gns]

At the lowest common denominator level, the article is nothing more than a re-statement of "technology (broadly speaking) allows for new forms and methods of artistic work". I'll leave it to someone to decide whether the new work will still fall under "photography".

What I find fascinating, though, is the question of editing. Sifting through the amount of data from the kinds of image-making technology described in that article would seem to be a monumental task. I'm actually uninterested in the question of whether setting up remote capture stations and then sifting through the downloads is or is not art. (For me, that's a non-issue: editing and arranging is "art work" for me. After all, the notes and playable chords on a piano keyboard are rather limited; the art of composing is all in the sequencing of a limited number of already-known combinations.) I'm really more interested in how one would go about sifting through millions and millions of possible frames / moments in order to make one's choices. Perhaps not all that different than what we do when we press a shutter now? Or perhaps completely different?

I know for myself that the thrill of the hunt and possibility of connecting with my subject (human or not) would be gone, since the only "interaction" is with a computer screen instead of with a real space and real people in real time. But I suspect good art will be done with it anyway.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. I enjoy walking around with my camera, but I don't bemoan the arrival of new technologies & processes. And I look forward to seeing good new work.