I follow an American photographer, #JoelGrimes, who has a very distinctive style (and also presents incredibly personable videos). Watching one of his videos on how you price photography intrigued me. Obviously, the prices that photographers can charge in the US is considerably different to what a New Zealand buyer would pay (although the skill required to take an exceptional photograph does not differ depending upon where you live). The question really is - how do we 'value' what someone sees through the lens, captures, and then presents to us in a physical or virtual form?
Since we have started carrying cameras with us everyday and everywhere (in the form of our cellphones) it seems that we have all developed our photography skills. This has resulted in a devaluing (in my opinion) of the art of photography - we all think we can capture what a truly great photographer has - by the simple addition of a filter in social media our iPhone snap transforms from the ordinary to something else.
Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that we are all now involved in the visual arts (although a little biased I think that artists will save the world!). But I need to be inspired by those great photographers who go above and beyond in the pursuit of an image that will make us stop and ponder.
The insta photograph is not designed for us to ponder. The scale of posting (95 million new videos or images each day) means that few people stop and stare at a post like you would the work of a great master painter. If no one is really going to examine an image then it follows that less effort goes into producing it (generally speaking, the 'influencers' of the world tend to spend a lot of time in setting up images / situations).
Which photographers make you stop and ponder? *None of the images used in this post were shot with an iPhone!