the original claim dismissed an entire field of art by claiming that it boiled down to amount of wealth I can imagine that, say in the seventies, both camera's

the original claim dismissed an entire field of art by claiming that it boiled down to amount of wealth I can imagine that, say in the seventies, both camera's and film were a lot more expensive than nowadays(relatively). As practice makes perfect, really getting into photography, wouldn't be an option for all people then, because it would be too expensive a hobby. It may have been a pretty weird blanket statement, but there may also have been a hidden context that makes it a reasonable statement.