Photographic history
is a big, complicated subject.
So, without going too
deeply into what is, I would like to repeat some key points from a lecture into
this subject.
The lecture was by Dr
Kelley Wilder (De Montfort University), put on by photography network Redeye at Manchester’s
amazing and well-hidden Portico Library & Gallery.
Dr Wilder, who is
co-editor of a forthcoming book about what has driven humans to document the world
through photography, spoke about how some of the modern photographs and
photography collections which are hailed as important today might not be those
that are looked back on as important in the future.
She talked of the importance
of everyday history of photography, images of what we do or eat on a daily
basis. Images that are less iconic than those in photographic history (man
walking on the moon, Martin Luther King’s
I Have A Dream speech) but perhaps
more important in other ways.
This is what she said
(paraphrasing) about the act of showing someone a photo: “Showing an
image makes you talk. You talk about how it makes you feel. Film is different.
Watching a film makes people shut up.”
It’s my opinion that this
is the reason why images are so successful on social media platforms like
Facebook. A photo is quick, convenient, and can have a huge impact on the
viewer, albeit a few typed words replacing a spoken sentence.
NOTE: This is me with
Dr Kelley Wilder.
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