On the Usefulness of Photography

simonsarris.substack.com

28 points·simonsarris··5 comments

> A lot of people think that photography disconnects the viewer from the world, imagining for instance the person holding their phone at a concert, but I think often it’s the opposite. Practicing photography compels you to ponder what is meaningful and beautiful in your surroundings.

Err there is a being an aimless recorder and "practicing" photography, it's a spectrum and depending on which side you are it can very well disconnect you from the event.

Photography became what everything becomes when consumerism touches it

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/reality-rock-thousands-queue-get-p...

https://duffy.agency/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Find-out-mor...

https://www.instagram.com/insta_repeat/

Photography is simply writing with light. It is whatever you wish it to be.

Yeah that's what I'm saying, if you're writing 50 shades of grey you can't claim to be Shakespeare. Both are putting letters on paper but they have virtually nothing in common.

The article is way too forgiving in its analysis, especially with these generalisations, if anything the generalisation works better the other way

There is good and bad in all tools. I feel that the danger with photos or videos is the loss of context, and living in the past. Maybe there need to be an open forum for each photo that people can comment on to help guide the viewer. It may be recorded audio as well. Either way, should viewers be left with no reference or insight? We have comments for youtube videos, facebook and instagram photos, but what about personal collections whether it be Apple or Google photos, etc.?

> There is good and bad in all tools.

In the sense that you are implying, the good and the bad are most definitely not in the tools.

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