By: Bradford Spurr, Photography Director
Phōtos, “light,” and Graphé, “drawing,” are the Greek roots of what we understand today to be photography. Drawing with light, a romantic vision of an art form that has evolved into one of the most preeminent avenues of creative expression in the 21st century.
If somebody on the street were to come up to me and ask what three of my passions were, photography would come in at a respectable number two. That being said, I do not consider myself to be a “professional” photographer, I reserve that title to the traditional image of an artist whose sole focus of their talent is in the pursuit of photography.
My own relationship to photography started in high school in a similar fashion to most people these days, a photography class taken as a way to “round out” an education, as though art can be reduced to a box to check and that a fleeting exploration of the medium is enough to capture the full scope and breadth of the implications that photography has.
Photography is in trouble folks. Like a lot of things that got their start before the digital revolution in the 1980’s, photography has struggled to find an identity that is deeper than the superficial image passively projected upon it passively. Today we think less of the art form, the connotation being that of ‘selfies,’ cheap panoramic pictures, cat photos, and provocative studies in the naked human form a la the colloquial “nude.”
Although I do think that the creation of the smartphone has done wonders for ushering photography into the digital age, that evolution cuts both ways. It is easier, now more than ever, to snap a quick picture without any thought, letting the camera do all the work with its yellow auto focus box and a small LED flash forever preserving that piece of chocolate cake you got from your favorite little bistro or capturing a lazy sunset, stopping that orb of fire indefinitely, perpetually in a state of non-being, is it rising or sinking back down below our scope of, our conception of, reality.
I sat down with a friend of mine recently to talk about this article, Joshua Gilbert, 20-year-old senior here at the University of Southern Maine. He shared with me his ideas of how he interacts and uses photography and what its implications are, especially in an increasingly difficult digital age. “For me, it’s a great ‘release’ from the world. When I’m having a rough week I’ll just go out and shoot some photos and completely forget about reality while I’m shooting,” Gilbert said.
This idea of escapism isn’t foreign to hobbies, it gives one the ability to block out the white noise of day-to-day, 9-5 life. We all get caught up in the moment, unable to get out of our own way, so we naturally need a retreat from the “now,” and so I agree that photography can be that respite from the raging storm of the present.
I then asked him this, do you think that the prevalence of social media as a forum for visual media consumptions hinders photography as an art, or does the current relationship to photography allow a greater opportunity for truly incredible examples of the form to be elevated amongst the crowded field of amateurs, who know nothing of the “rule of thirds?” GilbertHe said, “I think it’s a mix of the two. I think in a way it has lowered the standard of what we consider professional photography but at the same time allows the artists that are less fortunate, to be able to express themselves ands show what they can do at a cost that’s much more affordable to the average person.”
Photography has a very real impact on people. Whether it be black and white large format pictures of Civil War generals, to Ansel Adams documenting the heartbreaking beauty of the American West, photography can communicate an idea long after the person is gone. We have memories and emotions but pictures are more like bookmarks for our experiences, little breadcrumbs trailed through our dark recesses of memory. The typical scrapbook comes to mind, with all of its A.C. Moore splendor on display with little stickers that read “It’s a boy” and colorful scraps of paper layered and formatted to highlight a ticket stub to the zoo or a play.
For all the good things that photography can do in the short-term scheme of life, there are a lot of ways that this amateurish use of the form has cheapened its intent, instead selling us on the novelty of the thing. This decline into regular plainness probably began with the induction of one hour photo studios in drug stores and malls. Gone were the days of stuffy dark rooms and the film process. People became removed from the very thing that made photography an art you had to work for.
Anyone can take a picture, but it’s one thing to capture a moment and another entirely to tell a story, and that is the difference between the everyday Snapchat story and an artist.