06-04-2013, 04:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-04-2013, 04:59 PM by nandadevieast.)
While everyone made a big deal out of it, Yahoo CEO wasn't wrong actually. There's no such thing as a professional photographer today when it comes to photo-journalism. It takes lots of money to dispatch photographers to the places where news is being made. While you can't expect a photo-journalist to be everywhere at the same time, you will find someone with a mobile phone having taken the very same picture where the fire broke 
Media is increasingly using pictures clicked by the common citizen and its not without a reason. Most professional journo's aren't expected to create any art, most aren't creating anyway...they just happen to be there where the action is.
If you look at Flickr, its got so many super-fantastic portfolio's that a professional photographer with a big P just can't match. These people have been the product of digital age...a housewife taking pictures of her baby, someone clicking flowers, someone else documenting his town...some of these people are very very talented.
On the other hand, not all professional photographers are rockstars. Most of them, in fact, are not. In film era, 'pro' was a vocation...it was some sort of secret art which common people couldn't figure out. But the digital age has taken the secret ingredient out and made it public. No mystery now. Every one is a potential artist. I think the change is good. We need more artists. Similar things, at a smaller scale though, will happen to the video and film making.
If you are good, you create art. Who cares who took the picture of a news event?
Media is increasingly using pictures clicked by the common citizen and its not without a reason. Most professional journo's aren't expected to create any art, most aren't creating anyway...they just happen to be there where the action is. If you look at Flickr, its got so many super-fantastic portfolio's that a professional photographer with a big P just can't match. These people have been the product of digital age...a housewife taking pictures of her baby, someone clicking flowers, someone else documenting his town...some of these people are very very talented.
On the other hand, not all professional photographers are rockstars. Most of them, in fact, are not. In film era, 'pro' was a vocation...it was some sort of secret art which common people couldn't figure out. But the digital age has taken the secret ingredient out and made it public. No mystery now. Every one is a potential artist. I think the change is good. We need more artists. Similar things, at a smaller scale though, will happen to the video and film making.
If you are good, you create art. Who cares who took the picture of a news event?