Vintage BerkeleyThere are over 10 billion (10,000,000,000!) images on the internet. The population of the world is around 6.8 billion. That is 1.4 photos for every person. I am probably responsible for a few hundred of them.
Flick mentioned this number to make a point. With the over saturation of images by anybody with a camera, the meaning of each image is diminished. It is like how Christmas carols lose their specialness since every year another performer has to give their special rendition to the songs. I sometimes think this is also true about pornography. The first time I saw it, I felt shocked, aroused, squeamish, and many other emotions. Now I don't really notice it because of the flood of it around me. Sometimes seeing images of people clothed feels like the rarity.
Prior to the internet, our only opportunities to view photos (other than the photos we took) was in magazines, books, and galleries. The only photos we touched were our own taken by us or a family member. Almost no one had a dark room so it was very rare to actually create, manipulate and edit the print into the desired final product. Those days are gone.
I can get a good digital camera for under $500 and be able to manage the images on a multi-use tool (the computer). I can use Photoshop Elements (about $100) to greatly manipulate and edit the image. After I get it to where I want it, I can publish it in my own book, prints, blog, Flickr, and multiple other venues instantly. It is very easy to be prolific with imagery. (The notable exception though is the art gallery. It is still a pain in the butt to get into those.)
It has always been stated that everyone has a great photo in them, but great photographers are able to create a body of excellence. With that said, some of these images in a master's body of work become iconic while others fade away. If I mention Pepper Number 30 by Edward Weston or Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, we can probably visualize them. Has this ability to create important single images been taken away by the gluttony of photos?
SproutMaybe it is time to look at the single image as just a part of the grander single portfolio. With this view, we can have each image transfer a bit of conceptual richness to a greater whole of the series. Maybe we have been struggling too hard making each photo contain deep conceptual context to avoid didactic messages. If I create fifty didactic images of various aspects of a theme, together they can be taken and discussed as a whole, refined product. The message of the sum of the images is greater than the whole.
Maybe we are getting to a point where a single image is not enough. We need to incorporate subtlety in communication throughout the span of many works. This though could increase the gluttony of images around us instead of creating the rare gems.
It’s difficult at times not to feel overwhelmed by the volume of imagery that exists in the world. At times it can feel as if it has all been done. Then, every so often I manage to pull an image out of thin air that is meaningful, at least to me. Perhaps that is what is most important, that the photograph means something to me. Of course it is even better when someone else responds to the work, and I’m thrilled if it can hang on a wall someplace or even if it gets a few comments from someone on the internet. But I have to keep asking myself why I do this work, and I keep coming back to my own need for self-expression and self-discovery. Regarding the body of work vs. single image, I believe that both are important. Looking back on a life in photography that has lasted over forty years, I can see single images that stand on their own and I feel very good about them, but they were not necessarily created with the idea that I was looking for a single image. They are part of a larger body of work. Sometimes they are part of an essay or a particular project that I was involved in, or they arose from a trip to a new place. Ultimately what is important is to keep working. If you do it long enough you will create a body of work that has your own style and that says something about you as an artist and a person, and within that body of work there are bound to be some individual images that stand on their own.
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