Is Photography Dying?
This is probably the scariest question I have asked myself recently. And that’s because I am a photographer who has been trying so hard to get recognized for my photography work, something that has taken four years of my life and still I don’t think I have even made it to the doorsteps of photography heaven. And why did I ask myself this terrifying question? Because there is a problem; it being that, unfortunately, photography is going through a crisis. Video is now king in the social media world, which nowadays means everything else is doomed to disappear, and photo-sharing platforms like Instagram have started to nail the coffin with its new algorithm. So the answer to the question is photography dying? could go two ways, depending on how optimistic you are. This essay will dive into those opposite views on the question, and what I think the future of photography looks like for us photographers. Spoiler alert: I am a pessimist.
Let’s start with the most optimistic answer: no, photography is not dying. We might be inclined to think video is doing to photography what photography did to painting when it was invented and became popular. Figurative painters, art institutions, and collectors thought photography would bring the end to classical fine arts due to its technology, which was capable of reproducing reality better and more accurately than any painter could, no matter the skill, and way faster. But we all know now that photography was not the doom of the arts, it rather widened the possibilities of artistic expression, giving birth to abstract art and experimentation with new, exciting mediums, embracing technology, and focusing on the audience’s experience.
Photography is still widely used in our society regardless of what social media platforms like TikTok or now Instagram want us to believe. It is true that video has started to grow drastically in the past years, having a huge increase during 2020 when TikTok became THE social media platform for entertainment thanks to the numerous COVID lockdowns around the world. YouTube has also kept growing since it became an indispensable part of our lives back in 2005. Also, these platforms have made it easier for ordinary people to learn how to create and edit video content, something that requires skills only those with an education in postproduction could do before, bringing video closer to anyone with a phone and an urge for exploring creative ideas. But photography is still important not only as a way of documenting events for news media but for personal moments. We still use photography at weddings, birthdays, trips, or family portraits for instance. Photography has been with us for more than a century, and it will not go away from our lives that easily, even though Instagram’s new algorithm intends to “eliminate” still images from our feed. However, life is much more than social media, right?
Photography is the essence of video. A video is nothing more than a fast succession of still images, or frames per second. I love video, and hence film, because it allows for content to be delivered differently and viewers to perceive it through a language that seems more direct and relatable. After all, life is in continuous movement. Photography also has its own language and delivers its message in a way that might require the audience to exercise a deeper reflection to decipher that content and therefore understand the photographic language. Through that process, photographers invite the viewers to think and explore meaning within themselves, something that is inherently part of the experience of painting. Photography is not dying, it’s just sending its message to those who want to hear it and experience it. We cannot force everyone to understand its language, and if some people prefer the language of video, we must respect that and focus our efforts on those who want to keep photography alive.
Now it’s the turn for the pessimistic approach: yes, photography is dying ―if it isn’t already dead. We might not want to recognize it, but the tides are changing. The general public doesn’t see photography as a skilled art form anymore. Because, thanks to the development of ever-better cameras on phones, people think taking photographs is easy and everyone can do it. Even though I think this is amazing because it has brought people closer to photography, therefore democratizing its use without it being exclusive to those who could afford to spend thousands of whatever currency you want on camera equipment; I feel it has trivialized and diminished the visual and aesthetic skills required to take meaningful photographs, making photographers sort of irrelevant. We shouldn’t deny the fact that a lot of people, also within the artworld, don’t consider “pushing a button” a skill, reducing photography to just point and shoot. The artworld is also responsible for this belief by refusing photography entrance to the art club.
Editing is also responsible for a lack of trust in the general public towards photography. Even though editing has always been part of the photographic process, digital adjustments through software like Adobe Photoshop have created a complicated relationship with the audience. We don’t know what to believe anymore. Is that model really that skinny? Is her skin that perfect? Has this event really happened the way the photograph shows or has it been altered to manipulate the narrative? Fake news are a consequence of this, whether we want to admit it or not. So it’s just logical that people don’t feel comfortable with photographs that are so easily edited to lie. I don’t know if this might be one of the reasons for Instagram to stop prioritizing photos with its new algorithm, because this kind of manipulation can also be easily done through video, but it’s certainly something we as photographers should be conscious about because editing is part of our work so we are also responsible for this mistrust.
There is also a new player in the art town. And it has a lot to do with what I mentioned above in relation to photography not being considered a skillful art form. Hyperrealism in painting is back. The general public is fed up with abstract art that “nobody” understands. Our society has an attention span of one second, not enough to “decipher” complicated abstractions and shapes and feelings. No, thank you. People want to perceive things fast and recognize them without spending too much energy, physical and emotional. Furthermore, we all have heard the sentence “how can that be art if it’s just a splash of paint on a canvas? I can do that!”. In the eyes of audiences who don’t belong to the aesthetic elite of the artworld, that cannot be art because it doesn’t require any special training or skill like figurative art does. So hyperrealism arrives to delight the general public who has been taught that art equals technique. What does this mean for photography? That photography is an unskillful tool anyone can do therefore is not art and we should eliminate it as an artistic practice in favor of returning to hyperrealism.
These two opposite views struggle inside my head every time I think about this. I want to believe that photography is not dying, that is just changing its direction; on the other hand, I think that could bring its doom. I am quite disappointed with Instagram, even though if I am totally honest with you I have always hated it but I recognized its usefulness regardless of its algorithm always being impossible to understand. Now, Instagram is pushing us, photographers, away. You either ride the video wave or you are out. And, unfortunately for our contemporary society, if you disappear from social media, you don’t exist. I enjoy making video content and editing, but I feel I now spend more time doing that than shooting photographs or thinking about new and exciting photography projects that would help me evolve as an artist who chose photography as her medium of artistic expression. It is honestly exhausting.
Photography has been mistreated as an art form from the beginning by art’s elitism, the prioritization of technique above aesthetic content, the misuse of photography to mislead and create mistrust on the public, and the lack of artistic education to appreciate art throughout all its expressions. There are so many factors that contribute to photography’s death. As I said in the introduction, I am a pessimist, even though I still have just a little bit of hope. So I just want to send an SOS to you. Please, don’t let photography die. I know I won’t.
