Numbers and Selfies

Wikipedia cites the following numbers; in 1998, the last year that film cameras were dominant, they sold 36,000,000 cameras. By 2008, there were 120,000,000 digital cameras sold. And last year, 2015, there were 37,000,000 digital cameras sold.

These are fascinating numbers, don’t you think? First the absolute dominance of digital in the early 2000’s and a huge increase in camera users. But then what happened? The sales dropped as precipitously as they rose. Well, cell phone cameras happened. It isn’t that picture taking diminished, it is that the tools changed. People love the ability to instantly e-mail or Instagram or tweet the pictures they take on their cell phones. Selfies rule.

I confess, I hate selfies. Trying to get a look at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and literally not being able to see the painting because everyone has their phones in the air trying to get themselves in the same frame as Ms Lisa - watching hundreds of young people in front of Notre Dame in Paris worrying only about how they can frame the church behind themselves. Really? The spectacular cathedral, the sublime painting, become an afterthought.

I guess photography can be two things - it can be all about you, or it can be a way to see outside yourself, a way to stop and look at the world and record its wonder. It’s what I love about photography, that it makes you see things around you that you ordinarily might not see. A lady sitting in a doorway in the heart of the Casbah in Tangiers, ignored by most people as they hustled past, for example. (Or maybe she didn't care about an afternoon breeze or fresh air and was just someone who liked to pose :) ? Either way, it intrigues).

Sure, we all take pictures of our family and friends, a birth, a wedding, travelling. But these are events. And they are of other people, not just ourselves. My rule #1 - if something you are doing is worth recording, someone else will record it. Unfortunately, it seems there about 36,999,999 or so people who agree with me, and about 500,000,000 who don’t. Oh well.

Despite that, I think cameras need to make the move to the new era of communication. Many already have wi-fi. The problem is not with the cameras but with the hugely profitable companies supplying data service. The greed-induced concept of requiring each device (tablet, phone etc.) to have its own data plan is the root of the problem. I have to wi-fi the picture from my camera to my phone and then send it on. Stupid.

Anyway, people will do with their cameras what they will. At least, when they're taking selfies they’re taking pictures, and with maturity, perhaps, will focus their lenses where they can more meaningfully go, and find those wonderful almost-hidden things that can enrich us all, in countless ways, precisely because they aren't just about us.