Case study 4 : Instagram (part 2)

While doing some research for my essay, I found this interesting article which kind of related to my essay topic. In the article, the author share their experience and though about Instagram .

First article:
Instagram is debasing real photography by Kate Bevan (a freelance writer and broadcaster who specialises in technology and social media)


as the previous post that i had posted said that Instagram is app to

1. help promoting or advertising
2. small data size for fast sharing 
3. unique flitter to help edit the images

But  for Kate Bevan, she a has a different thought about Instagram, She say that Instagram/Hipstamatic/Snapseed filters are the antithesis of creativity, and make all pictures look the same.

In the article, she also noted that instagram is also tool that kill creativity. She explain that, not only Instagram but other apps like Hipstamatic/Snapseed etc filters are the antithesis of creativity. They make all pictures look the same. They require no thought or creative input: one click and you're done. 

I kind of agree of what Kate Bevan say if i stand on the position of a professional. If every professional used the same style is kind of a way of killing creativity. But from a normal people point of view, this statement are not that strong. Instagram photos can be a social media to communicate experiences with people. That is their use. And in some point, different people may have taken the same photos from different perspectives or apply different filters so is kind of original.

And from the article of "Is Instagram Killing Photography?" by Joel Bentley (a communications and project manager at Peer Giving)

He say that in some point that Kate Bevan is right. But he say noted that please do not blame the medium but the artist.

He argue that the problem with Instagram isn’t its limitations. He share some example in the article to prove his statement: 

"I have some incredibly talented photographer friends (check out @zachbulick, for example) who, while Instagram isn’t their sole outlet for creativity, enjoy working within the limitations that it imposes, and create unique, original photos that are, at their greatest, beautiful little nuggets of photos. Every medium in the world has its masters and its imitators. So don’t blame Instagram, blame ubiquity."

Instagram Invasion BY PROFESSOR JIM 

Professor Jim also did some responde on Kate Bevan's argument. He used an example from one of the book he has written.  He say that he have made a  similar argument in discussing the landscape photography if his parent's camera club years of the 70s and 80s. Pointing to the curious movement within digital photography programs towards adopting the colour grain and characteristics of particular slide films, and suggested that “Such visual enhancements offer a retro veneer that invokes a particular nostalgic mood, but they ignore the wider mode of how such technologies and the active pursuit of photography shaped the view.” (p. 286, Placing Memory and Remembering Place in Canada – sorry for the shameless book boosting!).

Professor Jim also noted that he didn't think that adding filter will affect the product outcome and he also say that is not a much to follow this kind of trends. He

 think that it’s more productive to ask why certain aesthetics find new traction in new technological form. 

In this article, he share the same argument that i posted in my previous which saying the new generation like to customize and personalize their photo and share it to tell that "i was here".

"Adding retro filters is about playing with the temporal dimensions of the photograph, juxtaposing the visual cues of previous eras with what we know is the current grounding of the 21st C digital object.  Whether or not this is a “reactionary” or “progressive” artistic endeavour is perhaps worth debating, but it is far from simply trying to make “bad” photographs look “good.”  Perhaps in an age that is arguably swamped with a surplus of images, such tweaking is an extension of our desire to customize, to personalize, to have our pictures say more than simply “I was here, then”."BY PROFESSOR JIM

References
the Guardian. 2012. Instagram is debasing real photography. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jul/19/instagram-debasing-real-photography [Accessed: 2 Aug 2013].
I use this site cause inside this website it show the impact of how instagram bring to photography.

Bentley, J. 2012. Is Instagram Killing Photography? - Peer Giving Ideas. [online] Available at: http://ideas.peergiving.com/resources/post352/ [Accessed: 2 Aug 2013].
Benley J give a opinion about is Intagram killing photography and this evaluate article had some same tough with mine so i used it for support.

ProfessorJim. 2012. retro | Lug the camera. [online] Available at: http://lugthecamera.wordpress.com/tag/retro/ [Accessed: 2 Aug 2013].
I found this article that post by professor Jim is very interest and inside one of his blog had written something that are relevant to this essay question.