{"id":26666,"date":"2016-01-25T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=26666"},"modified":"2016-01-24T09:28:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T17:28:47","slug":"photography-2000-years-from-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/25\/photography-2000-years-from-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Photography 2,000 Years From Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Berlin,
Berlin, 2015 #cindyproject #trix1600<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is the year 4016 AD. Life hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t changed much. People are still stressed about finances, their families, their positions at their jobs, and whether they will get more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153followers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on their social media channel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Instead of photography magazines and blogs, we now have information that is directly beamed into our eyes (not through our brain waves) with the iPhone 30. We are still bombarded with these annoying ads, all telling us that if we want to make better photos, we need to buy the newest camera with 80 gigapixels, instead of the measly 70 gigapixels. That now you can shoot at an aperture of .75 (not .95), that the ISO goes up to 100,000,000 with barely any noise, and shutter-speeds that can capture a comet in crystal-clear detail.<\/p>\n

There will still be photographers who obsess over technical details. Someone will take a very boring photo of an asteroid or a sunset, and people will zoom into 100% detail to see every single scratch and indentation on the rocks in the foreground. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pixel-peeping\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photographers will then compare these 100% cropped-images with another camera, and brag (or insult) the fact that the other camera is far \u00e2\u20ac\u0153superior\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because of the higher-resolution.<\/p>\n

The issue photographers will have isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t how<\/em> to take photos (artificial intelligence computers in our cameras will do all the thinking), but why<\/em> to take photos, where<\/em> to take photos, and still unfortunately\u00e2\u20ac\u201d which<\/em> camera to use.<\/p>\n

A blast to the past<\/h2>\n

I recently visited the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prelinger library<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which looks like a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153start-up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in San Francisco. The library was a huge personal collection from a husband and wife duo, and after they passed away, all these books became part of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prelinger library.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The books are organized \u00e2\u20ac\u0153geo-spatially\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (the books closest to you in the library are of the geography of the West, then as you go down it goes into books of the East-coast, and all the way in the back there are books that go to outer-space). There are a variety of books that include arts, the humanities, social and political science, and technology.<\/p>\n

I was able to stumble-upon the photo-books section, and picked up some photography magazines from the 1920\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. It was hilarious\u00e2\u20ac\u201d these photographers from almost 100 years ago were still complaining and writing about the same issues that we do today in 2016.<\/p>\n

For example, there is this over-obsession with camera settings, camera lenses, camera bodies, printing techniques, darkroom techniques, etc. Not only that, but all the photos in the magazine are boring as hell (boring landscapes, trees, kids in the park), with an over-emphasis on what<\/em> camera they used, how they printed the photo, the enlarger they used, the chemicals they used, and all these other technical and mundane things (which really aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that important).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately there was a dearth of information regarding why<\/em> take photos. Nobody wrote about the philosophy of making images\u00e2\u20ac\u201d why hit the shutter? What kind of subjects are important to you in your life? Questions like: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you shoot to please yourself or others?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Back then they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have social media, but they had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153camera clubs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (notice how they are focused on cameras, not photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d or else they would be called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photography clubs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). At these club meetings photographers would spend more time comparing their cameras and nerding out over technical details, rather than talking about the philosophy of why<\/em> they make images, which images make their heart sing, and how to improve their artistic vision.<\/p>\n

What questions should you be asking in your photography?<\/h2>\n

I honestly get caught up in these pointless questions. I always obsess about whether I should shoot film or digital, whether I should use an optical viewfinder or not, whether to use a 28mm or a 35mm, whether I should shoot black and white or color, and whether I should use ISO 400 or ISO 1600, whether I should use a clear filter or a yellow filter.<\/p>\n

These are all the wrong questions. True clarity of thought and purpose in photography comes from asking the right questions.<\/p>\n

What are the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right\u00e2\u20ac\u009d questions I need to ask myself?<\/p>\n

Eric, why<\/em> do you take photos? What kind of photos make your heart sing? What kind of photos do you want to make, and what kind of photos do you want your grand children to see? What kind of aesthetic makes you feel warm, comfortable, and nostalgic for the past? Also whether photography is truly the most important thing in life\u00e2\u20ac\u201d or is it the act of living?<\/p>\n

When it comes to social media, rather than asking, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How do I get more followers or likes?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d perhaps the question should be, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do I need more followers or likes?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Does it come from a deep sense of insecurity that I put my external worth and validation on the opinion of others? Or is it because I need some sort of rubric of feedback? Or is it because I want to truly share my art with the world, and I feel that more people \u00e2\u20ac\u0153should\u00e2\u20ac\u009d see my work because it has great value?<\/p>\n

Your camera won’t be good enough 2,000 years from now<\/h2>\n

2,000 years from now, humans will still be envious, jealous, back-stab one another, brag, yet there will still be positives\u00e2\u20ac\u201d we will have communities, we will laugh eat and drink together, and love will permeate between us and hold us together.<\/p>\n

In the future, there will still be photographers who feel that their camera or gear isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good enough. There still will be photographers who are dissatisfied with where they live (Earth) and wish they would go to more exotic places to travel (Mars) to take \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos.<\/p>\n

But once again\u00e2\u20ac\u201d why<\/em> do we need to take \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos at all? Is it because we want to communicate more of our emotions with others, or because we want more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on whatever comes after Instagram 2,000 years from now?<\/p>\n

Technology always comes and goes<\/h2>\n

I have been a tech-enthusiast since I was 12 years old, and broke down my first PC, and built it up again. I have always saw the benefits of technology, and how it could enhance our \u00e2\u20ac\u0153human potential.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I saw all the benefits of how technology could \u00e2\u20ac\u0153empower\u00e2\u20ac\u009d us, help us break out of our little bubbles and shells, and help us achieve \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greatness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kind of like how Steve Jobs alluded to computers as being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bicycles for the mind.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I have been around long enough to see certain technologies and websites come and go.<\/p>\n

I started off uploading photos to online forums, moved onto uploading photos on my own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photo blog\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, started uploading photos to Flickr, then Facebook, then 500px, then Google+, then Tumblr, then Instagram. With each \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of a social media site, comes a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fall\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I remember using dial-up internet on my 38.8k modem (not even 56k) for AOL 3.0. I remember the rise and fall of certain services like Aol Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ, Xanga, Friendster, Livejournal, MySpace, and countless others I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think of at the moment.<\/p>\n

Services have come and go, but the people have stayed. We are still social beings that want to create art and share it with others. That will never change.<\/p>\n

But the technology is always changing.<\/p>\n

In photography we started off with large-format photography, then medium-format, then 35mm, then digital (compact sensor, APS-C sensor, full-frame sensor, medium-format sensor, smartphone sensor, micro 4\/3rds, and so on). 2,000 years from now who knows what will happen after \u00e2\u20ac\u0153digital\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photography. I doubt we will be able to use any of our digital cameras of today 2,000 years from now. The irony is that our purely-mechanical film cameras of today will still work 2,000 years from today, and I bet you there still will be people (a few select crazies) who will make camera film (just like how nowadays LP vinyl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are still around, and how people still use this antiquated technology of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153notebooks\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to write, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paperback\u00e2\u20ac\u009d books to read).<\/p>\n

Life is always short; live now.<\/h2>\n

Life is short. If we are lucky, we might live to be 80, maybe 90, maybe 100, maybe 120 if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re able to cure cancer, heart disease, and HIV\/AIDS in this lifetime.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it will be a short life. No matter whether you live to be 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100\u00e2\u20ac\u201d people will have always passed away \u00e2\u20ac\u0153too quickly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Your life is short friend. In our lifetime (maybe 50 years from now) I am pretty certain people will still shoot film, and I surmise that the digital cameras 50 years from now won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look too different from today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cameras, yet they will have 1,000 billion pixels, ISO 100 million, and the iPhone 30 or whatever will have phenomenal image quality. There still will be photographers with DSLRS, big lenses, and will brag about how much money they spent on their equipment.<\/p>\n

So why waste your time, life, and money chasing after that new digital camera? Every piece of technology will eventually get outdated. I know that film cameras will get outdated (slower) than digital cameras, because film cameras have been around longer than digital cameras, therefore will probably be around for longer (for further research on this topic, search the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lindy effect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Nassim Taleb in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAntifragile\u00e2\u20ac\u2122).<\/p>\n

Will that Instagram photographer of today still be relevant 50 years from now? Who knows, but I bet you that photographers of the future will still be studying from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153masters<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d like Henri Cartier-Bresson<\/a>, Andre Kertesz<\/a>, Lee Friedlander<\/a>, Joel Meyerowitz<\/a>, Bruce Gilden<\/a>, Josef Koudelka<\/a>, Joel Sternfeld<\/a>, Garry Winogrand<\/a>, Jacob Aue Sobol<\/a>, Anders Petersen<\/a>, Jeff Mermelstein<\/a>, Martin Parr<\/a>, Alex Webb<\/a>, and all these other great photographers.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty certain that future photographers will also have a nostalgia about the past\u00e2\u20ac\u201d they will still try to make their photos look like film, by adding gritty and grainy filters, faded looks, and other simulated filters.<\/p>\n

I honestly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it matters whether you shoot film or digital, medium-format or 35mm, rangefinder or DSLR, Android or iPhone, 35mm or 50mm, black or white or color. What matters is whether you are happy with the photos you are making, whether you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to sleep frustrated that you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to achieve your fullest artistic potential, whether you are documenting what is important in your life, and whether you feel that the photos you make have a purpose or meaning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When you die, your Instagram, Facebook, and social media channels will still be around (for a while). People will still be able to look at your old photos and enjoy them online. But once your children die, and their children die, nobody will be around to take care of your social media accounts. All of your information, data, and photos will fade into digital obscurity.<\/p>\n

The solution? I would say print your photos. Make them into prints that you frame, put on walls, and share with others. Prints will still be able to be enjoyed 2,000 years from now, unfortunately nobody will be able to look at your Instagram photos 2,000 years from now.<\/p>\n

If you print your photos into a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (magazine), or a book, you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need any third-party software to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153read\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the book. Any child will be able to open the book, smell the lovely cinnamon smell of the pages, and look at the lovely and faded images.<\/p>\n

Practical advice<\/h2>\n

Okay, so I want to give you some practical advice\u00e2\u20ac\u201d advice I am giving myself, and advice that I am currently trying my best to follow.<\/p>\n

First of all, spend less time on social media, online, and publishing photos on the internet. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not telling you not<\/em> to do it, but just put less attention and effort into it.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Instead\u00e2\u20ac\u201d put that effort into publishing and printing your work into atoms, into real physical paper, into real physical prints that you will be able to see images without the agency of some sort of digital device.<\/p>\n

The truth is with anything digital (text, images, videos), we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put any sort of intrinsic value to it. Why? It feels \u00e2\u20ac\u0153free\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like water or air. If something doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist in atoms or has a tactile\/physical component, it feels like it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153value.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This is why often a lot of cameras that feel heavier and from harder metals feel like they have more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quality\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (a film Leica made out of brass feels a lot more \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcquality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 than a digital Fujifilm x100-series camera because the brass Leica is a lot heavier). It is strange that us humans still associate weight with quality.<\/p>\n

But anyways, start printing more of your stuff. Use services like Blurb.com<\/a> to make cheap little magazines or books for yourself and a few friends. Personally, I made a small little book titled: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Europe 2015<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, which were just a bunch of snapshots of my trip in Europe this summer with Cindy, my mom, and Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom. I printed two copies: one for my mom and one for Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom. You should\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the look on their faces when they were able to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153relive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d their summer travels in Europe while looking through the book. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad I printed that book, I will be able to show it to my grandchildren one day, and share how much fun I had with my (two) moms in traveling through Europe. All the photos I shot that summer on my smartphone, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looked at again.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also taken a hiatus from uploading my photos to social media sites, which has been the best thing ever. Why? Now that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the instant gratification from getting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Instagram, I have been pondering what is the best way to publish my photos.<\/p>\n

What I now plan on doing is printing my photos as prints, and bundling them together to make a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153print book\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d imagine 7 photos printed 12×18 inches, packaged in a nice little box, which is all part of the same series. The first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153print book\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I plan on doing is of my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153City of Angels<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d project. The benefit of this approach is that you will be able to own the physical prints, share them with friends, frame them and put them on your wall, or just keep as a collector item. There is nothing that can replicate the feeling of holding a physical print in your hands and admiring it (can you really appreciate an image on a 4\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 screen?)<\/p>\n

Printing doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be expensive. Visit your local photo lab. If you live in the middle of nowhere in America, I recommend using mpix.com<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d they do high-quality printing for reasonable rates, and also ship. If you are in the states, Costco makes superb prints for also very low rates (they use Fujifilm paper, and most of them have new Epson printers).<\/p>\n

Also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get too technical or nerdy about the printing. I feel that printing a photo is more important than worrying whether everything is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153calibrated\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just try to make a print that you are satisfied with in terms of the look and contrast, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about making it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Because a print will never be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d just aim for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good enough\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

What won’t change in the future?<\/h2>\n

So anyways, contemplate to yourself: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What will not<\/em> change in photography 2,000 years from now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rather than asking yourself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What will<\/em> change in photography 2,000 years from now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Because after all\u00e2\u20ac\u201d in history, not much changes over time. Unfortunately, we notice change more than statics (a psychological bias that you can discover more in the book: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The solution? Disregard differences, notice similarities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And another mental exercise: imagine yourself 90 years old and on your deathbed. What will you be happy in terms of your photography, and what will you regret? My tip: make actions in your photography in order to avoid regret<\/strong>. You only live once, and there is no guarantee that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d exists in the afterlife (if you believe in an afterlife to begin with).<\/p>\n

So get a move on friend. Shoot your loved ones, shoot your family, shoot what you are passionate about. Spend less time on social media, worry less about what others think about your photos.<\/p>\n

After all, whose opinion is more important than your own?<\/p>\n

Be strong,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Sunday, Jan 24, 2016 @ 9:15am, on my ghetto \u00e2\u20ac\u0153standing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d desk (a chair on top of my IKEA table), with a simple espresso (roasted by my friends Chris Dillow) and another espresso by my friend Freddy Prinz, always with love support and inspiration from Cindy, the love of my life<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is the year 4016 AD. Life hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t changed much. People are still stressed about finances, their families, their positions at their jobs, and whether they will get more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153followers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on their \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_1306-pick.jpg?fit=1545%2C1024&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}