The Emergence of Digital Photography and its Effects on Society: The Craft

Rating: 4.17 based on 6 Ratings
  By Jonathan Ma
The Emergence of Digital Photography and its Effects on Society: The Craft www.sleeklens.com

It is impossible to deny that digital photography has made a major impact on society and culture as a whole. The changes that digital photography has brought are widespread and on a global scale. The technology of digital photography has made photography more popular and accessible to the masses. For example, a large number of social media apps and websites are based on digital photos. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have become popular worldwide. The ease of access to digital photography has led to a large spike in the number of photographers worldwide. From an economic standpoint, there was a large supply of photographers while the demand was not able to keep up. Over the last few decades, demand has been created by marketers and creative photographers alike to try and balance the amount of supply.

Photography of Everyday Activities

Because of the availability and affordability of digital cameras, a new generation was born. This current generation has embraced photography as a way of documenting everyday activities. Bloggers, Vloggers, and celebrities use social media as a way to let the world know what they are up to. As a result, the average Joe has accepted that sharing photos and videos of everyday activities is a good way of updating family and friends. Not only have DSLRs and point-and-shoot cameras become more popular, but even the demand for high-quality cameras in cell phones has increased greatly since 10 years ago. People today feel a need to capture every single moment in their lives. Tourists today not only take photos of famous landmarks but also of their breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They take “selfies” of themselves with their friends. Selfies are a new style of photography that was unheard of 10 years ago. And it has gotten popular to the point that “selfie sticks” were invented to help people take selfies. As social media apps became more popular, so did the practice of taking selfies to share what they were doing with others.

Social Media Apps

Without digital photography, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat wouldn’t exist. These apps depend on their users to share and comment on photos. The accessibility of digital photography, especially, on cell phones has made it very easy to instantly share what you are doing with others. People in the current generation are beginning to learn communication via photos, instead of via talking directly face-to-face or through the phone. For example, if a friend texts you and asks, “What are you up to?”, it is entirely plausible to just take a selfie of what you are doing and send it straight to them. Many people take multiple selfies throughout the day and send them to their family and friends to update them. Photos, especially selfies, have become a way of expressing information and even emotions.

Photography Becoming a Popular Art Form

There are many ways to express art. Photography, film-making, painting, ceramics, crafting, drawing, and design are all different types of visual art forms. Of this list, drawing is probably the most accessible due to it only requiring a pen or pencil and paper. For a long time, photography was an art form that was only pursued by hobbyists who could afford an expensive camera and film equipment. Other film photographers had friends or family who passed on their old equipment and taught them how to shoot. Nowadays though, nearly everyone owns a camera. It may not be a top-of-the-line SLR, but a camera is a camera. Even having a camera on your mobile phone means that you can be a photographer and gradually improve your skills. And if you are looking for a digital point-and-shoot or DSLR, these can be found on the used market for a fraction of their retail price. In recent years, the accessibility of affordable cameras combined with the internet being saturated with guides on nearly every subject imaginable has led to a significant number of amateur photographers teaching themselves photography. Photography classes are becoming more and more popular. They fill up quickly in high schools and colleges around the world. And every major city has large photography clubs filled with photography enthusiasts. The result of this large increase in the number of photography enthusiasts is apparent – the quality of photography, in general, has improved greatly in just the last 20 years.

Happy shooting!

SaveSave

SaveSave

Rating: 4.17 based on 6 Ratings
The following two tabs change content below.

Jonathan Ma

Jonathan Ma is a freelance writer and professional photographer. He grew up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States. The natural beauty that surrounds this area has helped him to learn to appreciate art and photography. Jonathan's favorite styles of photography are nature and sports photography. He enjoys learning and teaching others what he knows.

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet.