We were discussing skills required to be a successful photographer in the twenty-first century. I proposed that the skills required included knowledge of HTML and CSS3 (or at least the current versions of these languages) as a necessary part of a photographer’s skill set. When the prime method of image display is online, one needs to know and use the language to facilitate communication with your audience. I was taken to task on this view because one might consider the knowledge of coding skills is not required in the photographic world.
In the last century one of the skills a complete photographer needed was the ability to trim, dry mount, cut a cover mount and frame the result to display in a gallery. Those were skills we needed to complete the presentation of our work to our audience. These skills had nothing to do with photography, but were necessary if the goal was to hang on a gallery wall
There were (and are) photographers who didn’t and (don’t) want to learn or perform the tasks required to take that final step in preparing their images for presentation to their audience. That’s fine. They can pay for those skills to be performed by those who specialize in those tasks. There’s nothing wrong with that. None the less, we need to be aware that displaying the work we have completed is the most critical part of the artistic process.
Art does not exist unless there is an audience to see and be moved by our efforts. Otherwise, all is for naught.
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