Wim Wenders: Phones Have Made Photography ‘More Dead Than Ever’

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PKR

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Wim Wenders: Phones Have Made Photography ‘More Dead Than Ever’
From Michael Zhang at PetaPixel

Renowned German photographer and filmmaker Wim Wenders thinks that photography “is more dead than ever” and that smartphones are to blame for the art form’s demise. In this 1.5-minute video produced by BBC News, Wenders stops at an exhibition of his Polaroid photos to share some of his thoughts on the current landscape of photography.

Wenders believes that part of the devaluation of photography comes from the fact that even though so many more photos are being captured every year, so many fewer photos are being treasured and enjoyed in the way they were before.

“The trouble with iPhone pictures is nobody sees them,” Wenders says. “Even the people who take them don’t look at them anymore, and they certainly don’t make prints.”

And even though phones are getting loaded with more and more features and filters, they may not be helping people become creative photographers.

“I know from experience that the less you have, the more creative you have to become,” the photographer notes.

Basically, Wenders doesn’t think very highly of the smartphone’s place in the world of “serious” photography, and he doesn’t even think that most picture-taking done on smartphones should even be called ‘photography’…

“I’m in search of a new word for this new activity that looks so much like photography but isn’t photography anymore,” Wenders concludes.

Copyright © 2018 PetaPixel
https://petapixel.com/2018/08/01/wim-wenders-phones-have-made-photography-more-dead-than-ever/

I don't know that I completely agree with Wenders but, I think he's certainly correct in a lot of what he says, to my thinking. Printing, and the lack of it, is a big factor in this..
 
He's both right and wrong, pointing a polaroid camera at a piece of pie (or anything for that matter) does not constitute a practice of photography.

Oh and on his last point for a word for "it", I have 2 words: digital imaging.
 
PKR said:
....................... Basically, Wenders doesn’t think very highly of the smartphone’s place in the world of “serious” photography, and he doesn’t even think that most picture-taking done on smartphones should even be called ‘photography’…

“I’m in search of a new word for this new activity that looks so much like photography but isn’t photography anymore,” Wenders concludes ................. .
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, many of us are too busy making our own idea of photographs to worry about what people with smartphones are doing. They sure have no impact on me or my photography.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Wim Wenders is right.

Erik.
Click to expand...

I think, in some instances phones have introduced "photography" to some who would never have found it otherwise. And, a camera phone in the hands of a good visualist is just another, "often more handy", recording tool. But, overall.. I agree with you.
 
I use film and digital including a smartphone.
I don`t think many care what Wenders thinks because we`re all just getting on doing what we`re doing.
Sounds like a bit of attention seeking to me.
 
Interesting that he would express this but it has been going on for a long time now and I don't see it changing ... the smart phone has become the tool of social media where it records moments that people prefer to share on line. I don't see that as a problem because it's all a lot of people want and it's been happening since Kodak put a camera in the hands of someone in nearly every family in the world and there are shoe boxes filled with the results in nearly every household. The smart phone has become the digital progression of that trend in what has become a near totally digital world.

I worry more that the smart phone has become the brain of the current human being and it makes decisions for them on a daily basis that they used to make themselves.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Meanwhile, many of us are too busy making our own idea of photographs to worry about what people with smartphones are doing. They sure have no impact on me or my photography.
Click to expand...

Agree.
Wenders is ... in business with photography and arts.
We need not and so let´s follow the way of the most pictures that haven´t made yet :)
I just shoot what I want when I want and where I want. And it happens that I use my phone sometimes.

"More dead than ever" perhaps means a kind of exclusivity that died with that incredible machines people needed for photographing long time ago.

Just my 5ct
 
I'll add that Wenders' Paris Texas is my favourite all time movie by some margin. :)
 
Bob Michaels said:
Meanwhile, many of us are too busy making our own idea of photographs to worry about what people with smartphones are doing. They sure have no impact on me or my photography.
Click to expand...

Hi Bob;

I think today, a lot of good photography gets lost in the social media photo tsunami.

Years back, my studio mate, who makes a lot of TV spots and isn't known for his intellectual pronouncements regarding, Art said that he thought MTV had destroyed the public's appreciation of Art. I think he made a very intelligent observation. Now, with social media and camera phones, the trend is exponential in its consumption.

https://petapixel.com/2017/06/30/truth-shot-iphone-style-ads/

I think that this kind of reasoning comes from the New view of what makes a good photo. I see it a lot now.
https://petapixel.com/2011/07/13/why-you-shouldnt-give-too-much-weight-to-anonymous-online-critics/

Bob, I hope you're happy and in good health !
best, pkr
 
Sounds a bit curmudgeonly to me. It stands to reason there are more good photographs now more than ever, as there are more better books, music, etc. simply because a lot more people are doing it as amateurs and as professionals. Whether they are taken with a phone is beside the point with regard to quality.

He conflates prints with good and old with good, which seems below him as he is a talented artist and should know the trap of nostalgia is ever lurking. Being the comments were made discussing his Polaroid show, this might not be the case. I'm guessing he thinks Fuji Instax is some sort of app.
 
I think real photography stopped with the daguerreotype process.

It was exclusive enough and dangerous enough and expensive enough to make each one of a kind image produced to be highly treasured.
 
My thoughts on this is that WW is pointing out that there is such an overwhelming amount of photos today where not a lot of thought went into taking them. You just point your iPhone or Android, and blithely shoot away, without any consideration of content or composition.

The big game changer though is the Internet, with all its blogs, forums, personal web sites, and social media where one can post this profusion of images that, were we still in the Kodak Brownie ages, we'd never be inundated with them.

And the copy-cat way folks do things now. They see an extremely interesting photo, and the next thing you know, they and thousands more just like them are booking flights to far flung locales just so they can have their own version of "that photo". On their phone.

But photography is not dead. It's just gone into overdrive on cruise control.

PF
 
"I'll add that Wenders' Paris Texas is my favourite all time movie by some margin." Too true, Keith.

The only film I've seen more than once deliberately, up to about five times and it's still a visual treat.

WWis largely right but him saying this will have no effect whatsoever.



http://filmisadelight.com
 
I would be close to saying that 90% of photos taken with phones are shared on social media ie: FB, Insta etc etc. A lot of it is irrelevant.
 
Smartphones haven't killed photography there are quiet a few rather good photographs made with Smartphones. Exclusivity doesn't make a great Photograph a good vision makes a good photograph the tool to achieve said vision is secondary.
 
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