Photographer and industry analyst Thom Hogan is sick of selfie sticks. He's sick of them poking him in his back and sides. He's sick of the crowds of people who stay in his way after taking said selfies just to show their friends and then try to figure out where they're going to share them.
He continues:
Okay, I’m exaggerating. A bit. But one thing I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is that wherever we have crowds, we now have the smartphone camera phenomena to deal with. In an audience somewhere? The people in front of you will be holding their smartphone over their head to get an image and blocking your view. I guess we need to grow taller. Visiting a famous and popular place? You can get a photo yourself, but you will have to tolerate dozens of people taking photos in your photo, because they’re everywhere and if one leaves, another arrives. I guess we need to go to less famous places.
While we can all have a laugh at this common observation that I'm sure most of us have experienced our fair share of, Hogan goes on to explain that his complaints are tongue-in-cheek as he does want to encourage people to take photos, but he fears "we’re getting dangerously close to making some forms of images meaningless."
The observation of this everyday experience of watching people live their life through a four-inch screen is used as a setup for a much broader idea:
The problem is a very typical problem with all technology: when it’s invented, we all believe that it will be used for the greater good and solve previously unsolvable problems and will cure world hunger and end all wars. Okay, maybe not the last two. But still, when television was finally embraced and took off here in the U.S. after World War II, we were so sure it would be used for educational purposes and change public understanding that we dedicated a huge portion of the airwaves to nonprofit, educational, and public interest stations. We required all for-profit television stations to serve in the public interest, which included offering an hour of news each evening.
Look where that ended up. Yes, we got Sesame Street (now involved in a Muppet migration to cable and HBO), but we also ended up with 24-hour news stations that actually rarely produce news and instead like to air not-even-high-school-ish debates between extreme positions that are indefensible, solely because it’s entertaining. Entertaining to whom? Idiots?
He continues:
I fear that all the smartphone cameras are dumbing down our imagery. The whole notion of “selfie” is a little disturbing too. I was in Silicon Valley producing products that never existed before back in the 1980’s and I was always disturbed by the fact that we got branded as being producers of the “Me Decade.” If the 1980’s were the Me Decade, the 10’s are the LOOK AT ME decade. Yes, I put those words in bold and larger letters to make a bigger distinction between the previous “me” decade and the current one.
Hogan then makes a bold remark in stating that the "Look At Me" decade of the 2010's is likely caused by low self-esteem; people are sharing selfies with the world out of the fear of not being noticed.
He finishes his piece with a photo assignment for the reader, one that would be a good exercise for any of us, from amateur to pro:
Go take a photo today: one that doesn’t include you in it. One that shows the world something it needs to see. One that shows how you view the world. One that is meaningful, poignant, interesting, educational, and yes, maybe even entertaining. Let’s all show the world that images matter. (Uh oh. No, don’t start using the hashtag #imagesmatter and attach it to a selfie. ;~)
Take a photo today. One that helps the world see.
Take a photo today. You can even use a smartphone if you leave the selfie stick at home.
I encourage you to read the entire article here. Thom is one of the smartest men in the business and is a voice worth listening to. Be sure to also check out his main site, byThom.com, which is a hub for his new spinoff sites: DSLRbodies, Sans Mirror, Gearophile, and Filmbodies.
Read Thom's entire commentary at his site dslrbodies.com.
Quite patronizing and moralizing for no real purpose. Live and let live. Selfie stick aren't hurting anyone...
The selfie stick hate was entirely tongue-in-cheek as a lead in to his bigger point. Not even the point of the commentary.
Oh no, I get it. He's pissed that the main culture now is talking piuctures of ourselves instead of the world around us. This creates the illusion that we are more important that what's no in the frame.
He could have used a less patronizing tone.
GEE. Tell the guy to get a life....I feel the same way....this is America, all these selfie's suck, but I love them in spit of my self righteous attitude.
This is a generational divide that we're not always meant to understand or even judge. I'm not a selfie partaker, though I occupy the age range of people who do regularly. There is some kind of observation to be made about society and the selfie fixation, but I think the notion that it devalues photography in some way is a bit of a reach.
It's a stretch to infer there is a self-esteem deficiency. I'd say the opposite is true in this case and that there is room for all sorts of personality types on the selfie spectrum.
Lets not investigate this too much and get back to shooing kids off our respective lawns *shakey-fist*
They were on my lawn last night. Grrr.
I don't think his commentary about selfie sticks specifically were supposed to be taken to heart. It was a lead-in to a bigger point, and certainly not a point you must agree with. We all have days we just want to vent. At the very least, I thought it was an interesting discussion.
I didn't mentioned the selfie sticks, but was speaking to the grander point about what it means about people in general. I think our era of technology and social media has harbored a "look at what I'm doing" fixation.
Whether you post it in the form of a selfie or as a photograph, you're still waving your hand to the collective and asking them to look at the pretty picture you're posting on their refrigerator. The selfie is a vessel for this just as much as any other photo we take. Whether we like it or not.
First world problems...
The image attached to my account is a very rare photo of me. But it's a selfie. Beyond that, the only other "selfies" I can find on my phone are my wife and me, my daughter and me, or my son and me, doing something that we would both like to remember. We rarely get in anyone's way, and they don't all get shared. My point here is that it's not Smartphones, it's dumb people. They have always been around, now they are just more visible. And in the way.
What you have is a self portrait. There is a huge difference between a self portrait and selfie. dont downgrade your work! lol
If you have a 6D or M2, you can use your phone to trigger your camera via Wi-Fi. Throw in the ST-E2 and a 580EX with a grid, and you have a selfie. A very sophisticated one.
Couldn't agree with him more. Everytime i see one, I have the urge to break it over my knee like if I just struck out looking. The people using them are usually very obnoxious and self absorbed and have no regard for others who may be occupying the same space.
I was at the Japanese zen gardens in Portland recently. They're beautiful to walk through and i was looking forward to the quiet contemplation that one could expect to find ...at a ZEN garden. And yet there dozens of (mostly American) tourists running around with those stupid things, blocking paths, etc. I am surprised nobody's lost an eye yet.
I mean, if they weren't supposed to be there it'd be a private garden.
Um...What? Nowhere did i say "they weren't supposed to be there." Only that they shouldn't be there and that the people using these selfie sticks only know how to compose themselves like it's spring break on South Beach.
I simply mean to say, that is how they are enjoying their time at the garden. You'd enjoy it more if they weren't there.
Get a life Thom. Learn to take better pictures for yourself.
Honestly, I am annoyed by the amount of selfies that show up on my FB. It's a select few friends. One makes duckface in her car every morning, one is holding a fitness shake, and one is always sucking face with her boyfriend. Every day, without fail. And I really believe these people are looking for compliments from their friends, maybe not even consciously. Duckface is beautiful but she doesn't think she's pretty. Fitness shake has a disability and it's her way of showing that it doesn't define who she is. Sucking face is very insecure in her relationship and likes to hear people say how happy they look.
One observation I've made is that selfies make it unnecessary to interact with other people you don't know. 20 years ago, you'd ask someone to take a picture of your family or group. When I took my son on vacation, my family requested pictures of both of us since I'm usually absent from all the pictures since I'm the one taking them. My son wanted NO PART is a selfie stick. So we went old school and asked other people to trade - they'd take our picture and I'd take theirs. The other people were excited to not have to take selfies! We did take a few selfies, but really made a point to avoid them when possible and interact with other human beings.
I'll meet one set of sweeping generalizations with another: every surge in technology to the masses is accompanied by those who drive and innovate (as Hogan claims he did in the 00's) and by a smaller, noisier cohort of those who bemoan the loss of what they previously took for granted (among whose number Hogan now counts himself, I guess). I don't know how/where the next-level pro photographer fits or into what the pro photographers must re-invent themselves today. But I know that, as ever, cranks set themselves up to fall behind.
http://adobochronicles.com/2014/03/31/american-psychiatric-association-m...
I don't often really agree with Tom. When you get to your mid-fifties and been in this racket for 40 years, you are entitled to have an opinion that should count. His also.
But here is 1 of those cases where I can absolutely 100% -- without reservation stand behind his beliefs and feelings on a matter. We have in fact become a people that are self-absorbed and self-aware to a point of nauseum. And the trickle effect into society -- it's values -- what we think is real and entertainment. It's all relative to the subject.
Screw the selfie thing.. It's a metaphor for everything that (by today's standards) are right. But OH so very very wrong with all of it.
Ever watch National Lampoon's European vacation? Remember the scene when Clark hands his camera over to a stranger to take a picture (or video) of them and naturally the man runs away with it?
Wanting to have your picture taken in front of some famous landmark or anything for that matter isn't new, but the ability to successfully take that image yourself without fear of handing your device over to someone else is quite nice.
I admit, most selfies are pointless and I really do get sick of seeing images of people shooting themselves in a mirror staring at their phone rather than pointing the camera at themselves and looking at the lens, but unfortunately we can't have everything.
Back in 1982, Canon's flagship model, the F-1N body costs $500.00. That was manual focus, totally manual exposure with match-needle metering and no auto ISO. The Canon A-1 body, which provided shutter-priority, aperture priority, and program, costs $330. [Prices from 1982 Calumet catalog].
Now, for $500, one can get an entry level camera, zoom lens, auto focus, auto exposure, auto ISO, auto everything!
PS: I shoot with my A-1 that I bought new in 1980. I also bought a used F-1N body in 2013 for $400 with AE Finder FN (aperture-priority), AE Motor FN (shutter-priority) and two focusing screens (spot and partial).
I'm glad we have Thom to tell people how to enjoy their cameras - ie his way - so much confusion! Here's another point of view, I can buy a postcard/google image search etc a million shots of the Eiffel Tower/Grand Canyon/Golden Gate Bridge. I can't buy a photo of me in them.
In 20 years time, normal people won't care about the generic photos they took of landmarks, they'll care about the ones with them and their families in them (isn't that why we encourage hiring a photographer to document your families and weddings?)
As for 'we're becoming too narcissistic', Thom has a website called byThom where he sprouts his opinions on how other people should do things his way?? Doesn't that fit the same description? Don't we all?
Simply by adding my comment here uninvited I'm doing the same.
And lastly, if you're sick of hot girls posting selfies, stop stalking hot girls posting selfies!! LOL
It's not the people taking selfies or quick snapshots of landmarks that are ruining the industry.
It's the people complaining about those people ruining the industry that are ruining the industry.
It makes pro photographers look like a bunch of whiners that are resistant to the endless march of technology and change.
Get over yourself. You aren't going to stop it. Find a way to adapt.
Adapt or die. Professionally speaking.
Yeah, that's not gonna happen. What is it with all these people and wanting to prohibit every human behaviour that ISN'T destructive?