Lzvu Temple, BaoTou, Mongolia
I promise, this is the last on this topic.
Photography used to be taught by photographers. It was almost a master/apprentice relationship where nascent photographers gravitated toward those with experience to learn how photography was done. Digital photography is now more software than chemistry and so the methods of learning photography have drastically changed. Photography is so entwined with computers and software it is not surprising the teachers of photography are more geared to teaching as a software experience rather than as the creation of a physical artifact.
Years of experience no longer matter because when the software changes every eighteen months or so you can’t possibly have any more experience than anyone else. This rapid change in technology has pretty much leveled the playing field in terms of experience. I have said before it’s not really an advantage to being a master of version 1.2 when the rest of the world is rocking version 8.6.
The quantum change from physical to digital images, the rapid changes in digital technology and the approach to teaching digital imaging make it very clear why photographs don’t look the way they used to look. Photography is not the same as it was forty years ago when I began the artistic journey. Virtually everything about photography has changed; it is little wonder photographs don’t look the same as they did forty years ago.
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