195/365
May 18, 2016
Rockport, ME, USA
I often think about photography on various social media platforms, and how extremely homogeneous a lot of the trends are (currently A-frames, live authentic, girls with hats shot from behind in front of a landscape etc.). It seems to me that a certain type of photograph gets popular for whatever reason and then every other person on Instagram feels compelled to repeat that shot 50 million times. Very few contemporary photographers that are somewhat popular on social media have any kind of recognizable handwriting at all.
I wonder if oversharing is really something that hinders contemporary art. I always thought the more people are shooting, the more photographers we have in the world, the better. But I'm not so sure anymore.
Bresson had no way of looking at other people's work all the time, he had to come up with his own ideas. If he wanted to draw inspiration from someone, he had to buy a book or see an exhibition. He couldn't double tap Capa's work all day and spend more time on social media taking in trends than taking pictures.