Virtual Wall: 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Digital cameras have democratized photography. From camera phones to entry-level SLRs, anyone can afford to be a photographer. But I'm not sure this is a good thing. It used to be that with film, each frame was a commitment; you had to look at the thing you were going to photograph, set up the shot, and then take it. When I go to museums, however, I often see people mediating their experience of art via the screen on their digital SLRs, compact cameras, and cell phones instead of actually looking at the pieces themselves. A friend of mine tells me that he was at a nine-year-old's birthday party, and the parents had set up a video camera that streamed directly to a computer in the next room; more people were huddled around the computer screen, watching the party, than were actually in the room with the party itself. It's almost as though the experience of reality (or the reality of experience) is too much work.