Content vs technique

What is photography?

What is photography today?

What if I take some pictures for my project using my cellphone because I don’t have the camera but found something that would really go well for my project?

Is technique more important than content?

“As Alec Soth suggested when I interviewed him not so long ago: “I’m more interested in the content and the expression than in the technology.” In this new era of mass-production, perhaps even more than in the past, the balance between research, language and storytelling—the supporting elements in the construction of the message—is what enables the work to stand out. Telling stories—in a more or less complex way, more or less journalistically or artistically— has always been an integral part of the work of the photographer, and so an extension of our working definition.”

What do we take pictures for?

Am I taking pictures to get a grade or to share them on my snapchat account?

What do I need to do to get an 8?

Does it matter to get an 8 in this project?

“I believe it is necessary to take a step back and deal with the issue from a different angle. The photographer is increasingly becoming more of an artist and less of an artisan; not merely an executor, but an author. The photographer explores and interprets reality, searches deep into stories and offers them back in a way that will always contain an underlying subjective reading. This can’t be limited to the simple act of framing, pressing a button and developing a photograph (I like to be romantic at times), but extends to a more complex form of understanding the world around us. Being a photographer means being a professional, being able to make complete research, handle different languages, to analyze and dissect, to go deep. If we want to live from photography today, we can’t accept any kind of dogma; we have to throw ourselves out there, figure out which way to take, follow it, and learn everything we need in order to be able to convey and circulate our message. Choosing digital or analogue, producing photographs or realizing images through screenshots or rendering software doesn’t matter in my opinion, those are personal choices. Who tells you otherwise is probably all about theory. It is clear that we are headed in a completely different direction.”

Read the full article here.