In a photo.net article from 1998, author Philip Greenspun predicted that eventually “we’ll all probably just be using high-resolution video cameras and picking out interesting still frames. ” Skip ahead to 2011, and the available technology on HD video-enabled DSLR’s is making that possibility a reality, and it really concerns, indeed alarms me, when it comes to street photography.
I think about renowned street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and the recently discovered Vivian Maier, and how a large part of their genius was a instinctive knowledge of when a moment or scene worthy of photographic capture was developing (no pun intended) coupled with the ability to capture and create the resulting compelling image.
If one sets up a camera on a tripod at a busy downtown intersection and record 30 minutes of Hi-def video, a frame by frame inspection will reveal plenty of “decisive moments” but it’s just not the same; the photographer is reduced to an editor, at best. One no longer needs the ability to see (as opposed to mere looking). It’s like throwing a bunch of canned loops together in a program like Garageband, and calling yourself a composer, without having written a single note yourself.
It would not surprise me to eventually see someone write an application that could find “Decisive Moments” in video, to give a photographer the ultimate in convenience for generating images.
Just don’t call it art.
My attempt at a decisive moment from the 2010 Toronto Marathon
My Third Eye 
that’s a sticky one, eh ?
The music example strikes close to home for me, as I resisted for many years against using anything electronic to assist or create. If I couldn’t play it live, then it couldn’t be part of my arsenal. No midi, loops, whatever – it didn’t seem “honest”.
One day, in a discussion of this type with a songwriter I respected, he simply turned to me and said “You can’t possibly believe that if Mozart had access to this technology he would have refused to use it.”
When you think about it, Mozart used the most cutting-edge technology available to him at the time, and it seems almost natural to think had he been born in a different time, his tool-set would have been different.
If someone shoots 30mins of HD video, and is able to pick a single thought-provoking frame, I’d still call it art.
The ability to select one image out of 43000+ images (assuming 24fps) isn’t editing, it’s treasure hunting, and that’s what picture taking is to me in the first place.
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We may have to agree to disagree on this one 🙂 Regarding the music example, perhaps I should clarify; it’s not the use of synths, etc. I have an issue with (I use these tools myself), but it is how they are used. There is a profound difference between using these tools to write original music, and just slapping together loops done by third parties.
For street photography, I value the concept of the photographer saying (through his/her images) “This is what I saw, this is what I felt, this is how I interacted with the story that unfolded in front of me, when I was there.” For me, “treasure hunting” doesn’t have the same level of personal involvement.
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i see what you’re saying, and having thought about it some more, a 30 min video wouldn’t give a chance to frame the shot, much like using a loop wouldn’t give a chance to emit the exact notes we hear in our “mind’s ear”.. so it would be mostly a luck thing..
I’d rather tell the story myself as well.
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I remember seeing a video of an “artist” painter whose technique consisted of standing behind a jet plane and throwing buckets of paint into the exhaust; the paint as a result would be randomly splattered on big white canvasses. Ugh!
I think a true artist can make use of luck, but does not rely on it; these are the folks whose portfolios are bulging with “once in a lifetime” shots.
Hmmm…I like that, will need to work it into the PAB presentation 🙂
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