Photography in the digital age. . .

This is a bit harsh for me, but it does provoke thoughts:

"With their proliferation, the world is awash in digital snapshots, and the art of photography dies a little more each day. These cameras are technological marvels, to be sure. But because they do virtually everything for you and require no effort beyond pointing and shooting, pointing and shooting is all that most people do.

In a particularly bitchy moment, Truman Capote once described Jack Kerouac's stream-of-consciousness style: 'That's not writing. That's typing.' Digital cameras abet the photographic equivalent of stream of consciousness.

One thing, and one thing only, determines the photographic art, and that's the photographer behind the lens. Nothing else matters. Count on it: The digital age will produce no Alfred Stieglitz, no Margaret Bourke-White, no Ansel Adams unless the shooter possesses an artist's soul and has mastered the craft.

By all means, use your digital camera to take those family snaps. E-mail your images and amaze your easily amazed friends. Just don't call it 'photography.' Because it isn't."

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