jameel morrison | blog

But it does speak to the issue of art-meets-business matters that exist with the advent of digital photography.

You can read here and here if you’re a reader, I’ll couch the discussion with those two writings as references. Good stuff over there at roughlydrafted.com.

Up for discussion is the impact of digital, and a discourse on it’s implications for everything else. Conversations with friends often rested on the premise that the music industry was suffering because the internet was burgeoning and the monolithic record company was too stubborn to change its ways, insisted upon defending and protecting its stronghold of music tooth and nail, and effectively fell on its sword in the process (as Chase Jarvis would put it at that Photoshelter town meeting last September).

!! Man! It’s really a new year! Last September seems like so long ago… but I digress

What the good folks over at Roughly point out, however are some other not-so-highlighted trends in the industry that had their impact as well. Namely, the ability of an Apple Inc to address a consumer need (portability of content– not necessarily high quality), and a trend among record stores to get as much as they could for records while the Walmarts and Targets dished discs on the cheap just to get people in the door. Interesting.

People didn’t stop listening to music, and they didn’t stop buying it.

Very provocative article in the context of photography mind you. Begs the question of the photographer (or studio)’s ability to address the needs of the consumer. Do they really care about the megapixels or even the saturated colors? Or do they just want good pictures? Reliability perhaps and a pleasant photo experience?
Wheels turning.

People are still buying good pictures everyday (in various forms– magazines for one; yes people pick up magazine covers because of the photos that are printed on them just as much as the content found inside), but are we playing like the Sony’s and the Microsoft’s pushing them to something that really doesn’t matter to them (noting the aforementioned discourse on low-definition television versus high, and all that content folks are watching on youtube and ipods…)? The proliferation of digital cameras (as I’ve heard mentioned on so many forums), or even the availability of lower-cost-higher-megapixel-chippped-slr’s is not chasing away the photo client market. If anything, it’s presenting an opportunity for a great resurgence of appreciation for what photographer’s do. And do it, we must if you’re worth your weight in talent or business-savvy.

And it won’t get us anywhere to focus on trying to take them to places they can handle autonomously. (Here, have a look at this high-quality picture that you don’t care enough to chuck all your dvd’s to adopt..). Are we meeting them where they stand? Or trying to force them into running after a dangling carrot that no reasonable cause exists to go after?

I guess we’ll all see soon enough.

Or not.