I’m 6 Months Ahead of My Time

Jillian Edelstein at The Guardian writes about how photographing events stops us living them (via MG Siegler).
No shit, I wrote about this back in June of this year:

In the 1990’s photo, the audience has a one-to-one connection with the musicians on stage. It’s direct, focused and visceral. It’s how I experienced every concert in high school and college.

In the 2010’s photo, the connection is no longer one-to-one between the audience and the performers. A middleman has been inserted between the two sides. What this means is the priority is to capture a great version of what’s happening, not to experience the performance. I know this because I’m guilty of pulling out my iPhone and recording bits at concerts in recent years. It’s a tempting and easy thing to do, but I’ve quickly found myself feeling like a cameraman doing a job and not a guy at a concert enjoying a great band with my friends, beer in hand.
I’m either ahead of my time or everyone else is behind the times.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *