I remember a time when children went to school and were taught the proper etiquette to answer the telephone, to ask for assistance, to sit at the dinner table, to stand in line and wait for help, how to count change, to be polite to others and respect the elder… and so on.
We use to have to be pretty damn creative in order to make some things happen. I remember searching out a library for books and information, using a pencil and paper for my math assignments, making my own toys, writing letters, making crystal radios and the like.
A decade or so ago most decisions were made by people. As the computer age has advanced so has the number of decisions that people no longer have to make. I heard and estimate today that 56% of decisions are now made by machines. This would include things as simple as popping a bag of popcorn in the microwave - is it three minutes or do you push the "Popcorn" button, or as complex as landing a jet fighter on an aircraft carrier, the ALS in an F/A-18.
ReplyDeleteWhen you apply that same process to photography you may begin to see how many artistic decisions are now being made by the camera, or even worse, by some faceless software engineer. As the decisions are made for you it becomes very easy to take very pretty pictures that were very well done in a technical sense. How many new cameras have settings for portraits or landscapes, action or sports? What decisions are being made for you that you used to make? It has become so easy to take pictures that are technically very good without all of the hassles of thinking about exposure, contrast range, and all of that stuff. When you think about it, how much of your creativity and talent have you given up to the software engineer when you push the button. The same applies to the manipulation of images in the computer after you have downloaded them. Decisons which you used to make can now be made by the software.
I guess it comes down to why learn to play a guitar when you can play Guitar Hero? Why read a book when you can watch a TV? I hear the Japanese are now making robotic girlfriends...
Tom