A photographic or an idealistic society that have lost its compass!

 Contrary of a today commun idea, pragmatism doesn't guide most of our actual social behavior. Instead it is almost only individual idealism that dictate the way we are choosing to live. In photography it reflects in our material search and acquisitions that are more intentions to show something that simply doing photography. Yes, this tendency to show more than simply doing is not new. We have seen this phenomena using the analog-film era where many people were "wearing" cameras that rarely been actually shutter released although we must add that the film support and its processing were substantially more expensive at the time.

Doing photography is not only about taking pictures but also to share and to show them. In that context, we are seing today much more auto-portraits (selfies) than documented pictures that offer a personal interpretive window of our surrounding universe. All those "self-faces" testimonies are creating a narrow-minded view of this planet and its diversity of places and peoples. Taking pictures is now a consuming act that limit its impact to the next ephemera picture that will replace the previous one.

All this is posing the fundamental purpose question about the place of photography in our life. Hopefully, since a few years, it seems that a conscious (or unconscious) reflexion have begun to emerge over many people involved into the many photographic fields. For one, the gear frantic acquisition syndrome (GAS) have lost its absolute dictature influence over many photographic enthusiasts as sales are now oriented to mature designed products however at an higher selling price point we must add. On a more cultural point of view, you can observe that photo exhibitions are still well alive offering that way good opportunities to look at different photographers works and projects. In one word, we are restarting to look over our personal fence to be again interested by someone else or by somewhere else.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for the future of photography (and humanity) to share all the diversity of visual interpretations created by photographers. Our recent human history is full of significant pictures that have guided and haunted us to our everyday life. Photography has a documentary duty and a cultural obligation to report, to share and to preserve the best as the worst of this humanity for the benefit of all the future generations. Let that shutter release working again and again, and show your pictures!

Photo Daniel M: Canon ELPH 330 (Antigua and Barbuda) ; Photo Manon P: iPhone 7 (Lisbon, Portugal)