We stay in a world the place video consumption trumps all different types of media. From short-form social media footage and attention-grabbing YouTube clips to the Netflix taste of the month, it’s video, video, video. As a photographer that may really feel just a little disheartening, particularly in case your price as a inventive lives and dies by your Instagram, which has lengthy transitioned from a photo-first to a video-first mannequin.
I gained’t deny that the {photograph}’s relevance has diminished. But very like the written phrase, it’s removed from out of date. That’s as a result of the {photograph} has one thing that video might by no means have, and quite satirically, it’s the very factor that has made video a lot extra common: A nonetheless picture is a nonetheless picture – it would not transfer.
A transferring picture, then, stimulates the mind extra, producing a extra satisfying hit of dopamine. Pair that with rapid-fire short-form content material and also you’ve acquired an addictive loop that’ll have you ever ignoring the pins and needles and again ache whilst you ‘doomscroll’ on the bathroom for 40 minutes. Has anybody ever achieved that whereas pouring by way of Bresson’s The Decisive Moment? Unlikely…
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So how might transferring imagery ever be at an obstacle? Well, it strikes, it’s fleeting. The creator has little management over the purpose at which the viewer engages or disengages with the work (they may miss the crux altogether). And whereas the viewer could possibly watch the video a number of occasions, pause it or rewind, it’s a lot more durable to pour over the crux, the climax, the decisive second.
A nonetheless picture alternatively affords each creator and viewer way more management. The former is exactly delivering the decisive second to the viewer, in need of strolling away, they can not keep away from it. And the viewer is ready to interact with the content material extra deeply. This has the potential to extend influence, take away ambiguity and encourage deeper evaluation.
And the proof is in the pudding. When you think about defining moments in human history such as the moon landing or 9/11, as well as cultural icons like Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley, you tend to think of photographs. Photography has become synonymous with pivotal moments and despite the rise and rise of video, I’d argue that imagery is still largely (not entirely) preferred today.
I recently watched Disney+ documentary Love+War, which is a film about Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photographer, Lynsey Addario. When I think about the Ukraine war, I find it difficult to separate the many snippets of video that have been played over and over on the news and social media. But Lynsey’s harrowing photograph of four dead Ukrainian civilians, which was published on the front page of The New York Times, is etched in my thoughts.
The similar might be stated for the tried assassination try on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. Video footage was repeated on the information, advert nauseam, however apparently, it’s the {photograph} by Evan Vucci of a bloodied Trump, fist aloft, surrounded by Secret Service brokers and framed towards the Star-Spangled Banner that has endured. Why? Because that was the decisive second and Vucci’s digital camera immortalized it in a approach that the video footage merely can’t. You can’t assist however keep in mind it.
And that’s the facility of an ideal {photograph}. It reaches out, grabs the viewer by the lapel and shakes them. There’s no ready for the influence, the influence is instantaneous and it lasts so long as the viewer lets it. A video can present extra context, it could take the viewer on an extended, arguably extra intricate, journey, however the {photograph} is the knockout blow.
I’m not suggesting that images is superior to video, however I’m making it clear that images is on no account inferior. We want each types of media. But on this ever-changing AI-infused world the place folks have turn into extra cynical of images than ever, skilled photographers have to be protected in any respect prices. The {photograph}, the nonetheless picture, the one body is arguably extra necessary now than it ever has been earlier than.
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