picture of and in a corner at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
Here I go again. I just can't seem to help myself. Re: idiots to the left, idiots to the right, idiots all around (for this conversation, in the physical world, not the political one). I've even heard it said that idiots never die, they just lay in bed and multiply.
Case in point # 1: An individual on a photo site wrote an entry which stated unequivocably:
"As a pure camera, any version of an iPhone is laughable by current standards ... [I]t is a snapshot camera perfect for quick memories of kids or pets doing something cute ... [W]hat it really isn't is a camera suitable for photographs where the goal is printing, archiving or editing."
All things considered-especially the site on which the entry appeared (all hail the full frame or larger sensor)-perhaps the author might be better described as an arrogant idiot inasmuch as, iho, good photographs can be made only with the "best" gear. Or, with gear and technical tools that allow for the utmost control over the making thereof-in camera and post processing.
I could (and have) launch into a long and passionate response to this nonsense but, to keep it short and sweet, let me just write that this moron would most likely have been a member in good standing of the then photo establishment that labeled Robert Frank's pictures in his book, The Americans as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons, and general sloppiness." crap.
iMco, the reaction to Frank's pictures, as well as that of the aforementioned idiot's to iPhone photography, is instigated by one simple reason: those pictures-made with new and novel tools and techniques-are perceived as a threat to the critics thereof, both to their embrace of the current (then and now) photographic conventions and perhaps more importantly to their own smug feeling of superiority over the un-washed and un-enlightened picture making masses.
You know what I mean ... "How dare those impertinent bastards make good pictures without all of the blood, sweat and tears I put into the making of my picture and prints! Burn them at the stake!
Stay tuned for Case in Point #2.