just like the player piano…

“ANYONE CAN BE A PHOTOGRAPHER” blah, blah, blah…
“EVERYONE HAS A CAMERA TODAY!” whimper, whine, snifle…

If you’ve ever picked up a camera and held yourself out as a photographer, I’m sure you’ve heard those lines before. I know I have. Unfortunately, I’ve heard this far too often lately, and most of the time it’s coming from other photographers. The people who are supposed to be passionate about this form of art. This is truly disappointing. A bunch of fucking sissies.

“Cameras are so automated, they do everything for you, anyone can take good photos” wha, wha, wha….

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there aren’t millions of people out there with cameras snapping away at all hours on their iphones and canon elfs and whatever else they can get their hands on. Does that make everyone of them a photographer? No. There are also 7 billion people out there with arms and legs. Does that make everyone a dancer? No. There are billions of people who can read and write. Does that make everyone of them a poet? No it doesn’t

To reduce photography to such a simple idea as merely pressing a button, is really an insult to anyone who has ever been passionate about this art. A good photographer will provide consistency in the quality of their photographs. A good photographer has a unique eye. A good photographer has the personality to put their subject at ease. Knowing when when to shoot and when not to shoot. These are all things that you don’t develop by accident, and automated machine will never have those qualities.

We’re living in a day and age when dictators are being overthrown, economies are failing, entire industries are going through periods of redefinition. Look around you, this is what history looks like while it’s happening. Times are changing, and transition is never pretty. Need a better visual of how ugly change can be, go check out the 8th grade class of any middle school in your area; or better yet look at a photo of your own 14-year-old Peter-Brady-esque mug. Shit is fugly. Through all of this you have to change with it. If you stick with it long enough, that DTM you’re rocking might just turn into a beard that would put Brett Keisel’s to shame. Just as the music, print and movie industries are changing, so is photography.

Did you know without the player piano, you wouldn’t have an ipod? Before the player piano was invented the “music industry” made money off of the sales of sheet music. You better believe dudes were ballin’ off that sheet music money. Think about that, for hundreds of years, guys were jotting down music notes; and if someone wanted to learn the song, they had to pay the publisher. Then around 1870 some homies out in Philly, started really working on this idea for a player piano. It took a little while, but by the 1890s the player piano was picking up steam. Just like that, the fat cats in the sheet music biz start yipping and yapping about the end of times, the death of music.”Oh great now anyone can play the piano! That thing is completely automated it does all the work for you”. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Don’t hate the player…
Last time I checked, people are still getting paid off of publishing rights. Maybe not like they were 20 years ago, and certainly not like they were 200 years ago. Regardless the player piano didn’t destroy the music industry, and neither has the ipod or the mp3. It’s just helping to weed out the jerk-offs who insist on following a method of business that is out-of-date. The lesson that needs to be learned, is that great art will come out of this period of change. If you stay light on your feet, and sincere to your art, you’ve got as good of a chance as anyone does to “make it”.

Sure business models and distribution methods will change, but the one thing that will stay constant is that good art will always be sought after.