Slightly over dramatic title, yet one I sadly believe to be very much true.
It took me a while to truly confirm that photography as I and many others knew it had died, but with the rise of “content”, finding true photography is becoming harder and harder. In truth, I don't think photography can ever truly "die" as there will always be someone out there doing it properly. This is the same for when people have a conversation about the death of film photography. There will always be some mad professor out there making wet plates, even if all celluloid film is destroyed tomorrow.
If you look back even as little as 10 years, photography was treated differently from the way it is now. This is not due to the iPhone or technology becoming smaller, and photos being easier to take. In my opinion, the reason for the decline in actual valuable photography is a change in people and mainly consumers' attitude towards the medium.
A photo used to mean something. Even in the space of advertising or news. You knew there was thought and intent behind the framing or the subject matter. Now, however, due to the speed at which the images are seen and need to be immediately consumed, I feel photographers either do not have the time to sit and curate work or are simply forced to be on these crazy deadlines, as if you miss the "moment", the images won't create attention and therefore won't make money. Sadly, I think gone are the days when a photographer could take 6-8 weeks to work on a body of work about an event and then release the work much later to make sure the images told a true story.
For example, there is a photographer I shamefully have only recently discovered called David Butow. He has been working as a professional for longer than I have been alive, so when you find this type of work, you have to study it. One of his more recent projects was turned into a book called "Brink". Butow spent a fair amount of time in DC covering the Trump presidency from 2016 to 2020, and then just happened to be in the area of the Capitol for the January 6th riots. The book he made covers this period and fateful day; in my opinion, this is the way more photographers should be working. David did not release this book immediately after Jan 6th or even seem to rush it in any way. He took his time, got it printed in Italy and made a great piece of work about a really important piece of history.
Imagine if this work had had to have been rushed out and posted online for immediate attention, like many of the other photos taken that day. They would have been lost in the world of Instagram slop and forgotten about mere moments after they were uploaded. For this reason, exactly why I believe photography is near death. Very few working professionals can do this type of work and projects. Not due to skill or want/passion for it, simply due to the media and the way everyone needs to see everything instantly.
Since coming off instagram I have noticed my sheer lack to know about everything and anything has pretty much stopped. I know what I want to know about, I read news websites, not captions on images and honestly, I feel more informed. So yes, I do believe social media has pretty much killed photography, it has turned talented photographers into content creators and moved what I believe could be some really amazing fashion/studio work into nothing more than a still to be used at the beginning of a reel because "that's what the algorithm wants". Honestly its sad, but I implore you, don't give in to what the fast-paced world wants you to be. Stop, think, take stock of your work and release it when you want to. Not when the numbers tell you to. You'll thank me, I promise.
