In this interview, Gail Mooney explains that at the Professional Photography Teleseminar she will be speaking to “photographers who think they might be interested in moving into motion.” Interviewer Adam of RETV jumps in and says:
Which is just about every photographer out there right now because it is such a huge movement. I mean, it’s very similar to when we switched over from film to digital. You know, you’ve got everyone out there right now trying to pick up a camera and shoot motion because the clients are asking for it.
I had never thought of the move into motion as being analogous to the switch from film to electronic capture and, in many ways, the shift seems to be a more massive one. After all, we’ve come to accept that a “still film photographer” and “still digital photographer” are, fundamentally, one and the same. On the other hand, a “still photographer only” and “still photographer and videographer” — which is how Mooney defines herself — are totally different creatures.
Sure, it’s possible that not every photographer is currently moving into motion as Adam suggests (and this blog assumes). But those photographers not at least interested in the potential of motion seem as rarefied as, say, a 1995-era photographer who insisted on only photographing with black-and-white film using an 11 x 14 view camera.
“Drop the Digital from Photography” Chase Jarvis blogged in November, asking, “Isn’t it time we implore the rest of the world to assimilate the term ‘digital photography’ back into ‘photography’ as a whole?”
As 2011 gets rolling, almost everyone who buys a new point-and-shoot camera or cell phone gains the ability to capture motion, and will so so comfortably. Given this, isn’t it becoming ridiculous, and perhaps self-limiting, to talk about “still photographers”?
I think that each photographer needs to define what his speciality is and what types of image making most interests him. But aren’t we getting to a point when saying “I’m a still photographer” is like saying, if even unintentionally, “I’m against the possibilities of motion”?