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I took a college course about photographic culture in ~2008, wherin we read 150 years of essays complaining about how vain everyone was having their picture tak
by jacobolus 8y ago
I took a college course about photographic culture in ~2008, wherin we read 150 years of essays complaining about how vain everyone was having their picture taken all the time, how they all took the same uncreative tourist photos, how sitting through people’s slideshows from their trips was a bore, how smiling at cameras is contrived and artificial, how photography wasn’t real art and didn’t require any skill, how the availability of cheap photographs was degrading the concept of a portrait, etc. etc.
This is not even close to a new phenomenon or a new complaint. The main difference is that almost everyone carries a camera all the time now, the marginal cost of taking additional photos is basically 0, and sharing pictures is easier than ever.
- ctdonath 8y agoIIRC, someone built a "camera" that searched for photos that had been taken from that location & direction already, returning the best existing approximation instead of actually taking yet another picture.
- JauntyHatAngle 8y agoI'm not saying its new. I'm saying its more normalised than it was. Vanity has always existed, and as much as it's a dirty word in many's eyes, it does have a purpose. However, for whatever reason (there are tons of reasons and probably all of them play a part), it's more normalised and common than it ever has been before, for better or worse.