Photography
Madison Schaefer
Economics B4
Mr. Jim Reuter
23 September 2014
Photography
An evil villain once said, “When everyone’s super, no [can] be” (Incredibles). What he meant is that if everyone has the “super camera” then it no longer because super, but, in fact, standard. It seems as though it has come true about the evolution of photography.
Photography is becoming a booming skill in a culture with a plethora of technology. When Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented the first camera, I doubt they could have imagined what it would become. Scarcity is no longer an issue when it comes to digital cameras. There are so many different ways to to take a digital picture, for example there are phones, laptops, desktops, DSLR cameras, point-and-shoot cameras, and so many more. However, even though the are many different ways for people to get their hands on a camera, there is still a product that dominates the world of photographers. Not everyone can afford a DSLR and the trade off for the purchase for a smartphone is much less significant than the trade off for the purchase of a DSLR.
Looking at the graph, it might help to understand that the first generation iphone came out in 2007, which then boosted the sale of smart phones for the following years. The positive slope of the smartphone data is fairly consistent, which is a notable observation. The DSLR cameras were not necessarily not as fascinating at this time, just more expensive, and advertized less. So, households continued to look for the compact phone cameras as an alternative to DSLR cameras, causing the production possibilities curve to shift to producing more multipurpose phones than cameras. The reason for the shift is not there is a higher demand, but that there is more space and technology to mass produce phones when compared to mass producing cameras.
The use of cameras has changed, thus the necessary equipment to take a photo has changed. No longer is photography regarded as an expensive art, but something that can include a multitude of ugly “selfies” and a way to capture every child’s first and funny moments. It’s understandable, not everyone has a ton of money to spend on a DSLR or even a point-and-shoot camera, and as the prices for these have gone up, the price of smartphones has gone down, from the perspective that a person can get more for their money. Phone cameras are more convenient, and already go with people wherever they go. This private good has become a hit and now camera companies are not doing well. Many people don’t invest their money into a nicer camera because to them the marginal cost does not out-weigh the marginal benefit. The benefit of the convenient smartphone camera is far more important than the quality and special capabilities of a DSLR camera. This changes what classifies as photography. Filters on phone cameras and social media can alter a picture to look better than a raw picture from a DSLR.
With that said, do pictures we see on social media change how we view photography as a whole? You decide.
Work Citied
"History of the Camera." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the Camera
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