Do you think anyone cares about photographs ?

[kiwi]

I know we care, we take them and we process them and we sell them and we hang them.....but....does the general public really care anymore about photographs

Everyone has a camera (probably many) and they post 1000's of photos online to facebook, etc. A photo is now as important as a news feed ticker and is "alive" on the front page for 10 minutes...the photo doesnt need to have any quality

Do people still have albums ? do they even get their files printed ?


I wonder of anyone really cares about photos......or photography ?

[AdamR]

I think you answered your own question in saying that everyone takes them, puts them up etc. They are still valued. As before not all photos will be remembered by the people who own them. Not all will be valued. I can show you an old album with a bunch of average photos that still bring back some fantastic memories for me. And in doing so I feel fulfil the purpose they were taken. Even if they are blurred etc.

[nixworries]

many treasured memories are kept within a single photo, a time, a place, a feeling. blurry or crystal clear and perfect. i have seem people cry and smile when presented with a simple photo.
i think and aways will think that they are important.

[William]

I still have my Baby photos (1949) In a Leather bound Album, Hand coloured and all titled with humorous comments that my Dad did , I treasure it and look at it often , Much to the dismay of my Children now , I have a heap printed of all my Kids, Not in the fancy Album tho (Crocodile skin)

[camerasnoop]

Photos have a different value at different times in our lives. Tragic events can make photos priceless, even poorly shot, blurry ones. People who have not experienced any tragedy in their lives (mostly the young and invincible) will unfortunately learn the true value of photographs only when tragedy strikes.

[old dog]

yep......one here does. Julie and I do a fair bit of travelling...mostly o/s to date and (mostly me) we take lots of photos...thank goodness for digital. I would dearly love to see some of my best ones printed large and hanging on the wall. However in our house it seems that only one image per wall is the optimum number. I`m trying to be nice and cryptic here.... Julie makes a folder of each place/country we have visited.....eg...we now have a terrific album/folder on France and another on Italy...where we have just been a few months ago. We pick our fav pics, print them 6 x 4 and Bobs your uncle. Just looking up to the shelf above the pewter and there are at least a dozen similar folders. I`m hoping in time that our kids and grandies have a good look at them and get more inspired to travel.
As you facebook....... what is it...

[atky]

Photos or digital files I sell photos but get more and more requests for digital files. Its getting to the point where I'm thinking about changing my business plan to digital only would be easier take less time and give a better return I think.
So if you are asking if paper prints are not valued as they once were yes but I do think people save images in a different way than they use to.

[kiwi]

Photos or digital files I sell photos but get more and more requests for digital files. Its getting to the point where I'm thinking about changing my business plan to digital only would be easier take less time and give a better return I think.
So if you are asking if paper prints are not valued as they once were yes but I do think people save images in a different way than they use to.

I already made this change thsi last footy season - SO MUCH EASIER

[bgolds99]

There are two different types of photography. Photography as an artform, and photography as a method of aiding and preserving memories, or "snapshots" of the past. I think everyone, or most people atleast, appreciate photography as a way of aiding their memory with images. I guess these days, with every other person either having a P&S or a phone with a camera in it, the general public is into this type of photography more so than ever!

Photography as an artform is a different story. Like all types of art, you really have to be in it for yourself as the absolute priority, as the general public with their P&S fujifilms generally won't understand the skill, technique and experience required to produce a "good" photograph, whatever that is.

Cheers

[Ms Monny]

My Mum has stuff-all pics of us kids. The camera certainly did not come out every other day, like nowadays, and it was only on a birthday or a holiday that it would appear. Film cost money to buy and develop back then (and didn't I get told that ALL the time when I was a happy-snapper in my early teens!!). The images were probably treasured more because of this factor too.

These days - in our throw away society - pictures can be taken, deleted, changed in a blink of an eye. BUT I think the images are still treasured to a degree. Every mother adores those baby pics no matter how it was taken. And the recent photo of Great Grandfather, who is no longer with us, brings a tear to our eye. And remember that time when we first skiied down the slope and you caught that on your iphone?? The list goes on....

Photos will still have a care factor because of the nature of humans! We are sentimental, social beings (well, some of us!) and photos will always be a link to the past, even if it was only yesterday or 50 years ago.

[kiwi]

Maybe I should have said good photographs ?

[Mark L]

I think photographers care about photographs. But in this digital age, for how long do we remember others good photographs?
I've seen a lot of good photographs since joining AP. But in this digital age they are constantly being added to (and kind of lost) by the constant posting of even more good photographs.
On the other hand, pre digital and w.w.w. how many of these photos would any of us see?

[arthurking83]

I know we care, we take them and we process them and we sell them and we hang them.....but....does the general public really care anymore about photographs

Everyone has a camera (probably many) and they post 1000's of photos online to facebook, etc. A photo is now as important as a news feed ticker and is "alive" on the front page for 10 minutes...the photo doesnt need to have any quality

Do people still have albums ? do they even get their files printed ?


I wonder of anyone really cares about photos......or photography ?

Maybe I should have said good photographs ?

Are you referring to how we treasure our own images, or others images?

I totally completely and undeniably treasure my own images, which doesn't immediately imply that I believe that they're great or the best or whatever, and just because I don't print them on a regular basis, this again doesn't imply that they are either of no worth.
No I don't print them, and this doesn't diminish their worth to me in fact I've probably spent more money on the safe and indestructible storage of them (all 1Tb of 'em) and suddenly realised the other day that I need to spend a bit more. An NAS(Network Attached Storage) system is about to be acquired(I'm hoping to get it up to 10 or 12Tb capacity) and I reckon total cost is going to be close to $1K for it! And yet prints and albums mean nothing to me.
That is, my priority is to the preservation more so than the display of them.

I think if you have observed that people don't value the print of an image or the archaic notion of an album of prints, it's probably only because of the new technologies now available that compete with the print/album as a valuable resource.

Tablets, digital photo frames, PC screens TV screens, etc ..

I suppose for me, my inherent interest is not so much in the finished product, but the entire process of it all. The adventure in going to the places to capture each image, the achievement of capturing the image correctly(as determined by my tastes not some panel of judges!!), a bit of processing, and being happy with the final product.
Display is probably the lowest order of priority of the entire process for me .. so, I either share them or simply hoard them onto my array of external drives(until the NAS comes on line).

[kiwi]

Both I suppose

[arthurking83]

Maybe it's reached saturation point then.

As I said, I treasure all of my images(that I've taken), but I never print them. 4 prints in 100K images and one of them was as a house pressie to a friend.

But everything I've captured has been safely stored on multiple hard drives for years now, and I protect them with my life(in a sense).