ARTS2090 Final Assessmet

4. When publishing changes, so does society. Investigate and compare the impact of two publication technologies, one pre-1900 and one post-2000, on a specific aspect of society (e.g. education, politics, creative industries, science, entertainment, social relationships).

How cameras have impacted the society

      The picture of so-called "the world's first camera", but then which camera took this photo?

Camera is one of the revolutionary technologies invented in pre-1900s. It had impacted the society and especially social relationship in various ways; important life events were recorded, the moment was dead when it was captured.

  Before cameras were invented, every image was done by sketches and drawings. Portrait is the most common example, as it represents likeness, personality, and mood of the person at a given point of his or her life. Portrait is not a snapshot, it is the composed imagery of a stilled person. This is a sketch of George Street, Sydney in 1940s. Notice how our memory is shaped by digital images, our generation is used to look at digital pictures. A sketch like this will not remind us anywhere in the world.

         What did people do before cameras were invented? There was a high demand of drawings and paintings during the "old days" (before cameras were invented). People could do drawings for a living. Nearly all of the master pieces of drawings were done before cameras were invented. This is the famous paint The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh in 1889. What would happen if the camera were invented earlier?

         If people were wealthy enough, they would have a painting commissioned, as well as those who have power and reputation such as the king, ruler, president and important public figures. Anyone who made history was painted.

Today people are able to use camera to convert images into drawings and sketches by special effects and filters. Has the ability to draw, or sketch been lost nowadays? Is it overtaken by camera phones? 

         What was the society like before cameras were invented? Remember the time when people went to saloon, got drunk and fought? The society evolved around social movements and reformations. People spent time together face to face in public to discuss matters. This is an example in the stereotypical society in the Western.

         Upper classes or bourgeoisies have tea party sessions set out to discuss matters, often exchanging academic knowledge. Most of the time only women attended tea party. People again meet face to face to interact with each other.  

      Before camera became accessible to the public, photography industry played an important role in society. People paid and hired professional photographers to record important life events such as wedding, and child birth. Photo album served as an archive to preserve precious moments in life. 

          Photographers taking a photo by then has became commonplace. The term "photographer" has changed and blurred after camera phones were invented. "The impact on professional photographers has been dramatic. Once upon a time photographer wouldn't waste a shot unless they were virtually certain it would work." - Tom de Castella, whereas nowadays people are able to check the photos immediately after they took the photo.

This photo shows a photographer taking a group photo in a crowded area.

         Photography industry created job opportunities when 35mm film was introduced by Kodak company in 1920. New innovation encouraged industry to hire more employees to sell and service cameras and films. Photography industry included opportunities such as photo reporter, and editor.

This photo is discussing gender issues in photography. Why is photography industry dominated by male photographers?

         Cameras played an important role in the documentation of history by providing a record of actual events as they are happening in that moment of time. Cameras not only provided historical sources, but also became a tool for scholars and scientists to document new findings.

When I studied the Holocaust at high school, the images on the textbook helped me to picture the event in more details.  

    Like the invention of the printing press, cameras was widely spread across the globe. News industry and journalism were heavily impacted by cameras. Nearly all newspapers contained illustrations and images. A new form of journalism also emerged, it is known as photojournalism.

        The images in newspapers was originally acting as a supporting material to enhance the text rather than to act as a medium of information. John Thomson, one of the pioneers of photojournalism, published a monthly magazine called Street Life in London. The work was documented in photographs and text to describe the lives of the street people of London. He pioneered the use of imagery and photo as the predominant source of information, which successfully combined photography with news publishing.

This photo (The Crawlers) was taken by John Thomson. 

     In November 2000, the first camera phone was sold in Japan. It has marked the beginning of the digital photo sharing era. When camera phones became accessible to the public, they impacted the society in various ways. People are able to record and capture the image that they find interesting and inspiring. As camera phones became more prevalent in society, they have brought both negative and positive impacts to the society.

This photo shows the first camera phone J-SH04.

        Invasion of privacy becomes a hotly debated issue when people are able to capture and monitor others by either recording video footage or taking photos. On one good perspective, the usage of camera phones helped to gather evidence when crimes were committed. On the other hand, people used camera phones to capture an individual's interpersonal life. The term paparazzi defines photographer who take pictures of famous people (including athletes, celebrities, and politicians) during their daily routine. Paparazzi has the potential to ruin one's reputation by capturing misbehaving images (Good&Moulton).

This illustration is from the campaign called Canned Revolution, it tries to urge the government and big corporation to reveal the truth with unbiased propagandas. This illustration is similar to George Orwell's satirical novel 1984, which described totalitarian government regime.  

         In our generation, we are overly attached to technology. Camera phones have become a norm that people can't go anywhere and do any activities without documenting it with photographic evidence. Technology affordances created desire for people to take multiple photos of mundane activities to share with their friends. Social media like Instagram and Snapchat encouraged people to share photo with their friends and family, which contributed to the increasing trend of taking photos from everyday life.

  Teenager is the most active group who used mobile phones on everyday basis. Mobile phones have changed the way of how young teens interact. Adolescents have a tendency of communicating with each other by sending multimedia message, which contains both images and texts. When teenagers send sexually explicit photos to others, they are committing a crime called sexting. Sexting is referred to the distribution of child pornography via mobile phones. As a result the term "sexting" became popular in youth culture.

         Although camera phones brought several changes and negative impact to different aspects of the society, they also brought several positive impacts to the society. Cell phone cameras have led to an even more democratic form of freedom. With recorded video footages and captured photos, individuals is able to quickly uncover the truth by sharing it on social media, thus the rest of the world.

There is a video footage posted online about living under ISIS controlled society. The woman who took this video risked her life to uncover the truth of living under ISIL, at the meantime she is asking the world to help and salvage them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TkuAIKoI28  

         In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the United Sates. During the time period, massive destruction photos were taken by citizens and uploaded on social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram. Remember how the term "photographer" has changed? With camera phones nowadays, every individual has the potential to become a photographer. As public citizens who actively participated in the process of collecting, reporting and disseminating information, another new form of journalism emerged and was known as citizen journalism.

This photo is taken by using iPhone during Hurricane Sandy.

         There are debates about whether the technology enslaved people or not. As this photo suggests, has the mobile phone or camera phone dominated people? People become less and less aware of their physical surroundings; they would rather pay attention on their little screens than focusing on their surroundings. Even though they sit face to face, they still prefer to use their mobile phones, which completely killed the meaning of social interaction. However, an interesting argument expresses that "people are not hooked on gadgets, they are hooked on each other". (Rainie&Wellman, 2012) Although people are using their mobile phones rather than socializing, they are indeed socializing via their mobile phones.

The original caption for this photo is: " The last time we “hanged out” I simply brought a book with me… they were on their phones as I finished a full chapter. Unfortunately my book did not have a camera to immortalize the irony of the moment"

  In conclusion, camera is a revolutionary invention that brought enormous impact to different aspects of society. The history of painting and drawing is replaced by the invention of camera and photography. Camera itself underwent a series of evolution; all the way from big box camera to portable camera phones. What will technology bring cameras to the next level? How is it going to affect our lives?

I would like to end the work with this renowned photograph. Camera has brought the possibilities to capture a certain period of time (even within a second) at a given point of space. The moment it captured can be astonishing and inspiring. “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” ― Dorothea Lange            

Image references

            http://knowledgeparadiseee.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-worlds-first-camera-in-making-but.html

         http://postcardnsw.com/522/douglas-pratt-artist-1900-1972

        http://petapixel.com/2013/02/21/a-complete-professional-photography-kit-for-15-35-back-in-the-year-1900/

         http://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/the-starry-night-1889

         http://cargocollective.com/dbillustration/Commissioned-Portraits

         http://cn.forwallpaper.com/wallpaper/wild-west-slaughterhouse-saloon-308462.html

         http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/history-of-afternoon-tea/

         http://www.amazon.com/Photographer-picture-crowded-Atlantic-Archival/dp/B00K9DH7WW

         http://www.misterfindit.com/ads/old-newspaper.html

         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism

         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-SH04

         http://letsrollforums.com/very-long-train-american-f74.html?s=5d3cbc823582d6dbbcfc7629edc029d3&s=&daysprune=&f=74

         http://www.kjassoc.com.au/article/citizen-journalism

         http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673283/14-stunning-iphone-photos-taken-during-hurricane-sandy#1

         https://plus.google.com/116123554028678966465/posts/Knb1L5gQuVn

         http://www.lightchat.co.uk/lightchat-6-cameras-cameras-everywhere/

         http://www.healthsolutions.org/mic/?event=sexting

        http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christandpopculture/2013/03/faith-in-humanity-just-took-another-hit-a-horrifying-holocaust-revelation/

         http://myindiepixel.com/2014/09/03/all-hail-the-internet-god-of-all/

          
        http://www.viralthread.com/25-incredible-photos-time/

Works Cited

         http://www.ethicapublishing.com/inconvenientorinvasive/2CH20.pdf (Kelsey Good and Steven Moulton)

         http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/how-photography-changed-painting-and-vice-versa

         http://prezi.com/438tjjnh39iy/the-history-of-the-camera-and-how-it-has-impacted-society/

         http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/uclic/annb/docs/hsbfabUEchapterpreprint.pdf

        http://networked.pewinternet.org/2012/05/24/networked-individualism-what-in-the-world-is-that-2/

        

         Wellman, Barry. Networked. Massachusetts: MIT Press, The., 2012. Print.