Until recently I thought I was too young to claim that “when I was young” everything was better. Now I tend to change my mind.
The press photo is tumbling down for ages, with uniformly accelerated motion lower and lower, and the vast rise numbers of poor photographers is inversely proportional to the prices of cameras. There is nothing strange within it. I have nothing against blocking up facebook and blogging servers with poor photography, I can even get over that social community cannot distinguish a good photography from a ridiculously weak one, rescued with a few moves of curves in photoshop and slight of theoretically desaturation “to create a climate”. But lack of criticism from a photograph and there internet publishers is starting getting me nervous twitches.
Once upon a time in the distant galaxy, that is 3 years ago after a catwalk show in Warsaw, we got 15 photos. But these were pictures which we could put into our portfolio, if necessary we printed them, long enough they were used as lookbook which we didn’t have time to make. After last fashionweek , every fashion portal published their own photos, half of which looked, as if were made by hand on time 1 / 20 at iso 1200. Or, as if were done by mobile phone, which even with 13 megapixel matrix will be committing the ritual murder on notions of the color depth and the white balance . The least of worries, when somebody’s goal is doing photos with climate, and they do not have to be clear. But if somebody try to make fashion documentation this way, then that person should change his profession before getting killed by accumulated curses of angry contractors.
I know, photographing fashion shows is a hard work. It’s dark, the models are in motion. In Poland usually there is no place to set a tripod, crowds, everyone wants their own shots . The flash-lamps which could light a model from a distance of 3 meters are not only only beyond the budget, but also dreams of any “internet photographer”. Even if they had an equipment which they cannot afford, still it wouldn’t be easy to do. For the example, photographer Marco Madeira wouldn’t undergo preliminary quality selection on secondary stock in the Internet because of the grain. OK, I understand that. But that’s why a profession of the photographer exists , that’s why some people even try to earn money on it – because it requires investments and talent.
I lose temper when I have to sort 200 to 300 photos on different portals ( to own a portal you don’t need to be a webmaster any longer, the reader has a lot of time, and the pages can scroll over 15 sec and get frozen every 40 sec). and still I don’t know how the collection looks like, because I see only multi-colored smears (because of processes of desaturation and of balancing with curves – poor method of hiding the white balance set to the auto mode – these colors don’t get even close to reality).
I myself often do photos at shows, my effectiveness is 1 correct (do not mistake with “good”) photograph on to 3. But I am keeping them on my own blog and on my own facebook I am not assailing innocent people with them. I am having a feeling, that many “professional” photographers would need at least a half of my capacity for self-criticism. So please, people, let the professionals do their profession.
