Paper to Screen Migration and its Possible Impact on Photography

“The revolution won’t be televised, it will be streamed.” This adaptation of paraphrasing Gil Scott-Heron’s was how Perelman (2014) to explain the importance of understanding the correct platform with which to disseminate your content. As a photographer who teaches undergraduate digital photography, I am highly aware of the rapidly changing face of my industry and how the certainties that existed earlier in my career have given way to an entirely new environment. It is my responsibility to endeavour to assist my students in understanding how to navigate this changing workplace and adapt to the differing demands that it expects. As screen based publishing supersedes paper, similar restructuring will happen as it did in the wake of Gutenberg with old professions fell away whilst new ones appeared. The same has been happening in the photographic industry over the past fifteen years. Photographers are no longer the suppliers of purely still images, they have moved into the realms of becoming content providers. Needing to be able to shoot stills as before yet also generate video footage, record audio (both ambient sound and specific interviews), edit and so forth. Trying to make sense of what is currently a highly confused business landscape is something that photography educators need to address. Shirky (2009) proposes a positive outcome to the conundrum of what will replace the old model and that is, “Nothing will work, but everything might.” And although it is now apparent that society no longer needs printed matter it still needs professional, ethical, committed photojournalists, writers and content creators to provide the raw material that will populate future media. While currently printed magazines such as ID remain as flagships for their electronic counterpart yet lose money. The task I have set myself is to talk directly to leading practitioners and industry insiders in the hope of having a clearer understand of emerging technological trends, as well as the solutions that are being tested by creatives to adapt to the changes around us. At BBC Radio 1, they have moved a formerly aural media into the visual whilst still in essence being radio. This they achieved by engaging with their audience via YouTube and which the controller, Cooper (2014), described as “listen + watch + share.” It is becoming that photographers need to understand not just the essentials of image capture but also those of image placement so that they can build themselves up and thus market themselves as a brand. Stephen Mayes observes this causing clients wanting to be associated with photographers who have high brand profile.

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Julian Hawkins

Conference

Publication date: July 2017

Publication date (Print): July 2017

Pages: 244-249

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[0001]113 St James’s Lane

London N10 3RJ, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.52

SO-VID: fe82c787-e78d-4298-a049-1ca39156e79f

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2017)

Conference acronym: EVA

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Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 11 – 13 July 2017

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.52

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] M. Bleasdale [Internet] http://www.marcusbleasdale.com 5 April 2014

[2] L. Bush 2017 Interview with the author. London 7 February [Lewis Bush is a photographer, writer and editor of Disphotic.] http://www.disphotic.com 24 May 2017

[3] P. Coomes 2015 Interview with the author. London 15 December [Phil Coomes is the Picture Editor at BBC News website.]

[4] B. Cooper 2014 Young People Revolting - How to survive the changing demands of the heads down generation #RethinkMedia Conference Birmingham, UK

[5] L. Davis 2017 Photojournalism’s Uncertain Future? She Begs to Differ. [Internet.] New York Times 18 February https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/photoiournalisms-uncertain-future-she-begs-to-differ 23 February 2017

[6] R. DepardonA. Bergala 1981 Correspondance New-Yorkaise - Les Absences du Photographe. Libération/Editions de L’Etoile

[7] A. De Vigal 2013 Smart Readers Are Too Distracted To Dig Smart Content. [Internet] Wired. http://www.wired.com/2013/04/raw-meet-andrew-devigal/ 15 January 2014

[8] E. Eisenstein 1980 The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge University Press Cambridge

[9] S. Esterson 2014 Interview with the author. London 13 March [Simon Esterson is an art director and typographer.]

[10] K. Gardener 2013 Interview with the author. London 2 December [Kieran Gardener is an art director and tablet designer at Wired).

[11] D. Guttenfelder 2016 Meet the Photographers Visa Pour L’Image Perpignan, France

[12] P. James 2014 Interview with the author. London 10 March [Paula James is the Archive Manager at Panos Pictures.]

[13] J. Kelly 2017 Interview with the author. London 12 March [Jessica Kelly is a freelance documentary photographer.] http://www.iessicakellyphotoqraphv.com 24 May 2017

[14] MAPJD Lecture Archive 2013 Ed Kashi. London 24 October

[15] MAPJD Lecture Archive 2014 Stephen Mayes. London 14 January

[16] J. Man 2002 The Gutenberg Revolution. Headline Review London

[17] S. Mayes 2012 Photographs Are No Longer Things, They’re Experiences. [Internet] Wired http://www.wired.com/2012/11/stephen-mayes-vii-photography/all/ 15 January 2014

[18] S. Mayes 2014 Photo Expert Stephen Mayes On Photography’s Future. [Internet] Imagesource http://www.imagesource.com/blog/stephen-mayes-on-photography/ 29 January 2014

[19] O. Odueyungbo [Internet.] http://instagram.com/greatarsenal# 2 April 2014

[20] O. Odueyungbo 2017 Interview with the author. London 5 March [Ope Odueyungbo is a freelance photographer and Instagramer.] http://www.opeophotoqraphy.com 24 May 2017

[21] J. Perelman 2014 The Future of Media and the New Business Model #RethinkMedia Conference Birmingham, UK

[22] F. Ritchin 1999 In Our Own Image. Aperture Foundation New York

[23] F. Ritchin 2013 Bending The Frame. Aperture Foundation New York

[24] C. Shirky 2009 Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable. [Internet.] http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/ 12 March 2014

[25] C F. Smith 2014 Interview with the author. London 3 March [Chris Frazer Smith is a freelance advertising photographer.] http://www.chrisfrazersmith.com 24 May 2017

[26] G. Snyder 2017 Keeping up with the Times. [Internet.] https://www.wired.com/2017/02/new-york-times-digital-iournalism 22 February 2017

[27] S. Syed 2014 Interview with the author. New York 28 February [Sam Syed is a freelance designer and creative director for web and print.]

[28] R. Tooth 2015 Interview with the author. London 22 January [Roger Tooth is Head of Photography at The Guardian Media Group).

[29] E. Wenger 2009 Communities of Practice. [Internet.] http://infed.org/mobi/iean-lave-etienne-wenger-and-communities-of-practice/ 6 April 2014

[30] E WengerR McDermottW. Snyder 2002 Cultivating Communities of Practice Harvard Business School Press Boston

[31] D. R. Winslow 2017 The Uncertain Future of Photojournalism. [Internet.] New York Times. https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/the-uncertain-future-of-photoiournalism 19 February 2017

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