Week 3 Journal Article

When looking online for journal articles, I could hardly find any that I was interested in. However, i stumbled across this article, and as I am doing a media and communications degree I thought this was the most interesting.

This interview was with Stephen Mayes, an american photographer. This interview was found from the online photography journal website- LENSCULTURE

The interview was discussing about his early career and how he came to choose photography as his career. The questions then followed around the subject of instagram and the digital future for photography.

I copied and pasted one particular question and answer which interested me the most.

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/stephen-mayes-embracing-photography-s-digital-future

INTERVIEW

Embracing Photography’s Digital Future

How has Instagram impacted the future of visual storytelling? Stephen Mayes, Director of the Tim Hetherington Trust, offers his insights into photography’s digital future.

Stephen Mayes interviewed by Cat Lachowskyj

LC: What are your personal thoughts on Instagram as an image-making tool? It’s a really polarizing platform in this field, but we can’t deny that it has a heavy hand in shaping the future of photography.

SM: I hear all the criticisms and I somewhat agree with them. I can’t say they’re wrong, but my take on Instagram is that it’s a work in progress. There’s no digital form at the moment that is the defined form—it’s all just finding its way and fixing the rules. For example, everyone worries about fakes, but that’s only a problem if we think about photographs that we mistook as “evidence.” But what if imagery of the future becomes allegorical? What if pictures that are distorted and manipulated can tell a far greater truth than a simple representation of facts? Representing facts is very constrained, and often doesn’t allow much space for expression or understanding. My thought is that something big is going to happen and shift in culture. Our expectation of the image will change, and that’s what is going to finally settle things into place.

This interview makes me think a lot about the digital world and how i have been accustomed to use it. As Mayes states, 'what is the imagery of the future becomes allegorical? What if pictures that are distorted and manipulated can tell a far greater truth than a simple representation of facts?'. In my opinion, I think that this is already true, for the younger generation specifically, a lot of people create an identity that hides a hidden meaning, that hides an identity they do not approve of or think is worthy enough to show others.  Their Instagram profiles show highly posed and staged images of themselves or with friends and to their followers, this can present an idolised lifestyle when in reality their world is hardly as perfect as the images they have edited.

This interview has given me a starting platform to research into more and discuss the digital world and how we try to present ourselves on it. I think because my degree is quite close to this topic, i will enjoy working on it. My next plan is to look at photographers and academic literature to get a general idea of how I want to portray my future images.