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Thoughts on Photography, Then and Now
Thinking about photo history in these current times.
“The limits of photography cannot yet be predicted. Everything to do with it is still so new that even initial exploration may yield strikingly creative results. Technical expertise is obviously the tool of the pioneer in this field. The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph.” — Walter Benjamin — 1928.
I first encountered this quote from Benjamin in a history of photography course, circa 1982. The piece about literacy struck a chord then, and has stayed with me these many years, as I’ve watched photography’s advance. I’m guessing he might be amazed at our current state of ‘photo-literacy’ — considering he made this statement 91 years ago.
And 91 years later, the limits of photography can still not be predicted. Even today, everything is still so new in many ways. Benjamin’s take on ‘technical expertise’ rings as true today as it did when he wrote it.
