In a world where AI is becoming more prevalent, advancements in editing software, and a time when cameras have become more accessible than ever, it poses a question: has photography become too easy?
There was a time when buying a camera was an investment—and it still is—but the investment was much more significant, and the process was more complicated. If you wanted to start photography as a career, you went to college or worked with another photographer to learn the trade. Photography was about finding a story, whether a portrait, a project, or even a family moment, and snapping and telling the photograph. Nowadays, you can hop on the internet, purchase a camera, log in to YouTube, and call a friend to be your model. By the end of the week, you’re taking photographs. Recently, I started thinking about whether photography has become too easy or if it just feels that way.
It Used To Be a Whole Lot Harder
Technology has made purchasing your first camera, learning the technique, and starting your journey more straightforward. There was a time, back in the day—I sound old, but it’s true—when you had to work to get started. I remember getting started meant reading magazines and articles to research cameras and going to a camera store first to decide which camera you wanted to purchase. If you didn’t have a local store selling cameras, you would have likely been purchasing your gear through a nationwide camera chain catalog. When it was time for your purchase, you filled out the form in the catalog, wrote a check or provided a credit card number, and mailed your order form. Next, you needed to learn a few things. You went to a bookstore, bought every beginner photography book you could find, walked out of the store, and started reading! Those two steps alone were a lot of work, but we now live in a different world.
The Tools Have Changed, But Has The Art?
Film went to the wayside, and the new DSLR took center stage—for a hefty price. Time went on, and prices came down, leading to a time when some say everyone became a photographer. It took the skill of looking at a scene and creating a proper exposure. Today, without any knowledge, you can pick up a camera and properly expose a photograph. I know photographers who create outstanding photographs compositionally yet lack good technical photography skills and struggle with everything else.
Have we lost the art? This depends on how you define art. Is art in creating a technically and compositionally outstanding body of work, or is art described as a skill? In today’s world, we see some of the most talented creators ever, and I believe it’s because we have social media, making it easier than ever to share our work and get it in front of an audience. We haven’t lost the art of creativity in our community; we have lost the art of skill. The phrase “I can fix it in Photoshop” has been a real killer. Many do not take the time to correct an error in-camera; instead, they correct it by sitting in front of the computer screen in software. One can conclude that ease of accessibility and use has diluted skill in photography and devalued skill as an essential thing to have as a photographer. Meaningful and impactful photographs will still be created no matter how easy photography becomes, and that is the true meaning of photography.
Do We Lack Intentionality?
In my mind, absolutely! There are so many things we can discuss when talking about intentionality in photography. I could go on about the photographer’s vision, lighting, framing, lens choice, and settings. We use these things when making a conscious decision, and consciousness is the keyword here. We must consciously make many decisions in photography. Today, we lack this process because photography is becoming too easy! The more decisions cameras and software can make for us with the turn of a dial and the click of a mouse, the more comfortable we become. When this happens, we remove the thought process and critical thinking.
Let’s take a look at a newer Lightroom feature: lens blur. This is a great feature that allows you to blur the foreground or background of your photograph using AI. When I first read about this update, two things came to mind. First, I could see newer photographers utilizing this feature to get around using the correct aperture, resulting in another “I’ll fix it in Photoshop” scenario. Second, I thought, WOW! This is a game-changer and another tool in my photographer’s toolbox. In this scenario, we intentionally bypass our critical thinking skills because of technology and its ease of use. It’s human nature to take the easy way out. Why change the aperture? We can change it after the fact in post if we need more bokeh. That’s a lousy thought process!
In the End
In a world where photography has been more accessible than ever due to cheaper cameras, AI-driven software, social media, and ease of learning, it’s easy to question if photography has become too easy. Has photography become too easy and accessible? Undoubtedly, yes! We have just scratched the surface of a much larger conversation. If we think about it, is it a bad thing? No, it isn’t. Photography used to be a very complex process with significant financial investments. Now it’s becoming easy, but in a different way. We may have lost skills, critical thinking, and intentionality in the creative process, but this applies only to a select few in the grand scheme of things. Scroll through Instagram any time of the night, and you’ll see this is evident. Photography is still a craft with complex challenges, thought processes, and skills. However, while all these things may make photography seem easier and more accessible, it will only be easier if you make it that way.
Photography is still about telling a story. If not that it’s just a snapshot. Much of what you see from “photographers” are snapshots. No story behind the image.
"The spirits that I summoned / I now cannot rid myself of again" – Photography is nothing more than a lifeless body, maltreated and raped a million times over. The photo is just a random pile of pixels, edited to death and presented with pride (What a great photographer I am ...) Nobody needs photographers - the artist is a pixel pusher, the artwork comes from a prompt … Brave new world.
If one is interested in the photograph as simply a "pretty picture" or to demonstrate mastery of some piece of hardware or a particular post processing technique, then perhaps it has become not too easy or simple but far too formulaic... pushing buttons and moving sliders until a desired result is achieved is relatively easy. The real difficulty in photography is how to use the content of the photographs one produces to tell the subject's story... figuring out what that subject's story is... realizing that the photography flows from the subject's story... and that each story is different.
Photography has a long history of cameras which enable the ordinary, unskilled person to take pictures. The pictures might be more as a way to record life's everyday events than creating works of art; nevertheless, simple cameras requiring virtually no skill have been around a long time. In 1888, Kodak wanted to bring photography to the masses, so they solved the difficulty of film developing that had kept photography in the hands of the dedicated professional. Automatic focusing and exposure in 35mm cameras has been around since the mid-1970s, so I can't remember a time in my life that easy-to-use cameras didn't exist. Manufacturers are funny about that... they almost always want a larger market and more potential buyers for their products. Ease-of-use often makes that happen. If you want to take snapshots, there's always been a camera for that; however, if you want to make exceptional photographs, it takes greater skill than simply pushing a few buttons. Nothing's changed.
The fundamental process of creating a photograph has remained unchanged in my mind. In spite of the advancements in camera features and post processing tools, a photographer must still do two things: see the picture and get it in the camera.