Does Technology Raise the Bar?

Jerry Uelsmann untitled 1982

I really don't know. It should, but I am not sure if it does. or maybe yes. If it is abused it just floods us w/ average mediocre images, because everyone who thinks they want to be a photographer (I believe that everybody can if they intend to try) is trying to, but with a half ass approach, because the camera will do all of the work, or they can fix it in post (Photoshop). Well Technology will never raise the bar if we use it as a crutch.
 It always makes me laugh when I think about an acquaintance George, who thought his 2001 Canon Rebel could take better pictures than my 1997 Rebel because he paid so much more than me for it. as if a machine can take a photograph. When machines start making art, we should just hook our selves up to the matrix, because there will be nothing left for us humans to do. enough ranting.

w/ each technological step from when light sensitive materials replaced the tracing of camera obscura images onto a wall, all the way up to today artists have needed to challenge themselves not to just do the same things they used to only in an easier way, but to do more. Jerry Uelsmann was compositing images in a spectacular and beautiful way, in his darkroom, 5o years ago. so why should it impress anyone if we do the same thing on our computers in Photoshop.

My final thought for this post is more for film makers but could apply to photographers. Why are we telling the same stories over and over again only with new technology? Is it because Will Smith is a better actor than Vincent Price? No, its because we lack vision. Both Last Man On Earth and I Am Legend are good movies, but the story is the same. What I would like to see is an original story told w/ an old (or at least not cutting edge) technology.

So lets not expect the tech to raise the bar. Lets do it ourselves.

http://www.uelsmann.net/