I've been thinking lately (as is obvious from a previous thread) about where photography goes from here. Making sharp, clear, well exposed images is trivial now. Everyone is a photographer. We can tick all the boxes, reference all the photographers that came before. We can portray others, shoot some more rocks and trees. Turn another HDR trick with Photoshop.
But, for me, the portraits all look the same. The street photos are just more street photos (amazing stuff these days thanks to cameras with no ISO limits not withstanding). The landscapes? Some really amazing stuff technically; but, really, just another landscape. So, now what?
The one thing I don't see much of, and that includes in my own personal photography, is the world view of the person behind the camera. You would think we would see more of this in fine art photography, but what I'm seeing is mostly impersonal stuff in the art world. Commercial "art" photography, designed to sell. Or simply attempts to be radically different (which is very hard to do these days).
I think the challenge going forward will be to create images that are intensely personal, personal in the sense that they reveal the way we uniquely see the world, what we actually think (and feel) about the people, events and objects we point our cameras at. There is a challenge, there, because it means we are going to have to understand, ourselves, where we are coming from, to reveal it in our photos. And it makes us vulnerable to criticism. But I think this direction is the only one that will ultimately make our photos interesting, and unique, among the billions of photos produced each year.
What do you think? Legit, or just the ramblings of an old 60's model hippie?
