PHOTOGRAPHS ARE NO LONGER THINGS, THEYRE EXPERIENCES

Stephen Mayes wields his Canon S-95 compact camera. Image: Ron Haviv/VII Photo

digital cameras have profoundly changed photography is both true and clich. But few
of the regurgitaters of the idea can tell you exactly how. Stephen Mayes, director of VII Photo Agency,
is one of those few.

He argues that the rise of digital changed the very nature of photography by moving it from a fixed
image to a fluid one. The swift pace at which we create images is only matched by the pace at which
we discard them and yet, paradoxically, weve never been more engaged with images. Photography is
less about document or evidence and more about community and experience and thats not a bad
thing.
This article is part of a series of interviews with movers and shakers in the photography industry.

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The way we relate to imagery is changing, says Mayes, who thinks the pace of change is
astonishing. Fortune magazine reported in September 2012 that 10% of all photos ever taken were
shot in 2011. That same month, Mark Zuckerberg said Instagram, just shy of two years in existence,
surpassed 100 million users. Instagram users, who are signing up a rate of one per second, have taken
over one billion images with the app. Such frenzied activity will account for some but not all of of the
250 million images uploaded to Facebook every day.

Mayes suggests that comparing this new fluid image to the old fixed image is like calling an
automobile a horseless carriage. Were trying to define the new in terms of the old to the detriment
of understanding its potential and unique attributes. Wired sat down with Mayes to talk about
connectedness, professional use of filter apps, facial recognition and monetizing Instagram.

Wired: Why are we talking about cellphone photography?

Stephen Mayes: I think cellphone photography marks the transforming moment.

The transition from analog to digital photography was a pivot point, but it is a pivot that wasnt fully
recognized in that working with these large DSLR cameras weve been able to mimic [analog]
photography as we know it.

The cellphone is a pretty pure implementation of the digital phenomenon.

Wired: How so?

Mayes: There are theoretical differences between analog and digital, but essentially it comes down to
the fixed image and the fluid image. Analog photography is all about the fixed image to the point that
fixing is part of the vocabulary. The image doesnt exist until it is fixed. It can be multiplied,
reproduced and put in different contexts but it is still a fixed image.

The digital image is entirely different; it is completely fluid. You think about dialing up the color
balance on the camera, theres no point at which the image is fixed. That fluidity cascades out from
that point issues of manipulation and adjustments are obvious and rife. More importantly than that,
images now live in a digital environment. Given that an image is defined by its context it exists in a
perpetually fluid environment in which the context is never fixed. Images meanings morph, move
and can exist in multiple places and meanings at one time. Fred Ritchin, professor of photography
and imaging at NYU describes it as Quantum imagery. Digital photography is anything and
everything at any single moment; it has contradictory meanings all at once.

What the cellphone does is it takes all the attributes of digital and magnifies them.

Wired: How did you arrive at that conclusion?

Mayes: The photographers of VII meet once a year to talk about business and it is always serious
stuff. Last year, at a certain point, they started snapping each other with their cellphones and posting
the images to Facebook. They were trying to make each other look silly and adding little jokes. The
outside world shared the experience and it was all very amusing.

At the end of the session I said to them, Ive seen two things here that Ive never seen before. Its the
first time Ive seen you have fun with photography and laughing while you take pictures. The second
thing I said was, The images you were making werent documents; they werent for record. They
were just a stream; just an experiential process.

Part of the experience of being at that meeting was making and posting those images. Then, the
second wave of comments would follow, then it is washed over and two days later its gone.

I saw really earnest documentary photographers who, had you put 35mm cameras in their hands,
wouldve suddenly been about level horizons and juxtaposing foregrounds and backgrounds. None of
that; this process was completely unselfconscious, fun and experiential. It had nothing to do with the
photography that they usually make, to the point that they didnt realize they were making pictures!
Since then weve seen them apply the cellphone in serious photojournalism contexts Ron Haviv in
Libya for example.

The casual nature of making the image is transformative for the photographer and the photographed.
Ron talks about when, in Libya, he chose not to take his cameras with him, he became invisible. All
the fighters had cellphones too and were taking photos. Ron was just another person snapping away.

Wired: Is cellphone photography a new genre? Does it have specific characteristics like street
photography for example which we think of as a genre with specific attributes Leicas, strong
contrasts inlight and shadow and stolen moments?

Mayes: If you think about the number of photographs in the world, the number that is taken by
photojournalists as documents is so small as to be insignificant. The cellphone image exists as part of
a streaming process.

People arent using the cellphone to document a wedding [to make images] that in 30 years time
theyll pull out and show their grandchildren. Its about posting it on social media for immediate
reaction.

Peter DiCampo is working on a project called Everyday Africa. Hes looking at the positive and the
upbeat. Theres the arguments that photography in Africa focuses on the negative so hes challenging
some of that with his work. Hes been living in Ghana for three years now so hes rooted in Africa.
Peters doing very interesting projects but theyre like other photojournalism from Africa very
defined and very sculpted.

In between projects, hes running around making photographs of inconsequential

moments for Everyday Africa people putting nail polish on, people in elevators or people picking up
a coffee. Ive never been to Africa but Ive seen a gazillion pictures of Africa. Looking at Peters
images, Im suddenly seeing Africa in a way Id never appreciated it before.

We tend to understand technologies in terms of what went before famously we referred to the
automobile, at first, as the horseless carriage. We are going through this same process with the
cellphone. We keep trying to contextualize it in the old medium and with old terms. A print exhibition
brings the new image making back to the old methods of presentation.

Also, note how a lot of the visual filters are about nostalgia for the image. Were embracing the
cellphone, but desperately trying to link it to what we know, our histories and what is familiar.

Meanwhile, the object itself is taking us into completely different areas. The unselfconsciousness of it
is key. While everyone is looking at aspects, the Instagram filter, whatever it might be, actually
something bigger is happening behind our backs.
A cat naps on a booksellers table in Beyoglu, Istanbul. Photo: Amanda Rivkin / VII Mentor Program.

Wired: And what is that something bigger?

Mayes: The way we relate to imagery is changing. Our new relationship is less about witness,
evidence and document and much more about experience, sharing, moment and streaming. The
cellphone is a harbinger for something hugely significant.

For example, the Japanese Tsunami was essentially documented by people experiencing the
Tsunami. You had these incredibly graphic images of water coming up peoples leg as they scrambled
to higher ground and you were in there in an extraordinary way. I havent seen those pictures
reproduced much since. Since then, I have seen the professional photojournalists studies and
interpretations. Ive seen analysis.

Wired: Donald Weber went in.

Mayes: And made some good work. James Nachtwey and plenty of people of note have done it. But
theirs is a very different type of photography.

When I think of the Tsunami, I think of the images of water washing up around the [cellphone]
photographers legs. That was very much an experiential thing it wasnt a live stream but it was as
near as. The waters had barely subsided and I was viewing those images.

Similarly, of Syria. Really, someone brought out their cellphone at this moment and brought me this
close to the action? Were seeing images, again, not quite real time, but damn near it. Seeing them
the day of. That closeness, that intimacy, that streaming nature of information; thats a pivotal point
when I talk about our changing relationship with the image, it is shifting our expectations of what we
are looking at.

Wired: Why are people so averse to cellphone imagery? Damon Winters on The New York Times
front page? Why are they suspicious of the Lowy Lens or of Foreign Policys five-part The War In
Hipstamatic series from Afghanistan?

Mayes: I think the panic is easing at the moment. I think it came about for several reasons.

Validity and the authenticity of any image is important. Do people believe what theyre looking at? I
suspect that part of the reaction to the cellphone was partly, We dont know if we believe this. Can
we trust this?

Process is also very important, especially in journalism. Some of it didnt seem quite proper; theres a
belief that photography should be self-conscious and about hard work. Cellphone photography is not
perceived as a solid enough process.
Control is gone. The formal training of the professional photographer to control the equipment and
to control the representation is gone. Users can frame an image and select from a few filters, but in
terms of over-exposing, under-exposing, selective-focus and even, to an extent, the timing because
there is that lag in pressing the button and the shutter sounding, control is gone! But, Im sure
improved levels of control will return over time.

Again, as with so many instances in photography, the technology is leading the application. Granted
there have been examples of photographers saying, I wish there was a gadget that and then going
out and building it. Thats happened plenty actually, but typically what has happened is the 35mm
portable camera was produced and then that defined an aesthetic and an ease of access and all that
followed (street photography). Then rotogravure (color gravure) in the magazines allowed people to
shoot in color and that introduced a new element certainly in photojournalism. Next, digital, and then
video. Technology has always taken us down these routes; always technology with commercial
applications. But, currently there a very few commercial applications for cellphone imagery.

Im seeing stuff on Facebook that 10 years ago would have been considered wacky and avant garde.
Particularly Im thinking about details. Traditionally, the image that you all took and the image that
you all responded to was this very descriptive view of the landscape with the figure in it. Now Im
seeing details; an empty room, you know, with a metaphorical element; or a birthday candle. People
are learning this rich visual language from seeing and then doing. We are all benefiting from it and
then feeding it back into this cycle. Of course, this influences the professionals who are making
images to fit into that communication channel.

Wired: On trust. What does it take people to get past this suspicion of cellphone imagery?

Mayes: One of the things I notice and has always amused me in publishing terms, is that Time
magazine tells us they never manipulate pictures. I believe them. Ive only once seen them
manipulate a picture and that was a long time ago. And yet, the front cover is always manipulated
beyond recognition. It is almost always a photo illustration and if it is a photograph it is retouched.
When you ask Time people about it they say, Well, the covers different because it is not editorial; it
is an advertisement of the magazine. And of course, it is a conceptual summary of what the magazine
issue is about, so its not a representational image. Nobody has ever told that to the readership.
Nobodys ever ran a banner saying, The front page is being presented to you because People have
just learned that vernacular. People completely trust the authenticity of the images inside the news
magazines; Stern, Newsweek etc. and they are completely unfazed by the fictionalized element on the
cover. It is a convention that weve learned very quickly. Its not so many years since there were
scandals about manipulated covers; now it is routine. Weve absorbed it.

On trust and credibility, it is key to educate ourselves about what we are looking at. I triangulate. I
read a bit of information here and there I try to find it elsewhere to validate it. As we saw with Syria,
you can fall into a trap. You can read information on 10 blogs but it is all coming from one source.
Unless you really dig, it is hard to validate. In the main I think we are all learning that right degree of
belief and skepticism in how we treat text and image online. We may be fooled, we may make stupid
decisions but we are educating ourselves about what to trust and what not to trust.

Its not something you can teach.

iCome. Middleclass Chinas blossoming love for Apple, even as Foxconn workers strike. Photo: SIm Chi Yin / VII Mentor Program.

Wired: Is the everyday person empowered by being able to share photos instantly.

Mayes: It used to be my complaint that our voices were being strangled by the gatekeepers who were
Hearst, Murdoch and the usual suspects, but now we live in this more dangerous situation now where
we have this perception of free speech and wide access to information, but actually the strangle hold
has just been replaced by Google, Amazon, Apple. The filtering process is really profound.

We are increasingly finding that our image is being misrepresented, or represented on our behalf,
and probably more than it was before because journalists used to be the gateway into magazines and
distribution. Now, many of us are being represented and according to these gatekeepers, algorithms,
processes. Theres no journalist asking permission to take your picture, theres no advertiser asking
to use their image. Its insidious. The proliferation of our own pictures that we put out there
voluntarily is then being co-opted, in a way that as private individuals we were never subject.
The example I came across of people monetizing Instagram is by people who developed a following,
so they have wide readership, and then a few things can happen. They can be approached by brands
to represent the brand. And sometimes they are approaching the brand and offering to introduce
their following to the world. What is interesting in those examples, is that while the medium is
photography, it is not photography that is being sold.

I think with Instagram and the other platforms there is this notion of telling stories. It is not just
documenting fact. Its what was I doing, why was I doing it. And these stories are fascinating and
what gives these images their pull. Its not just a beautiful picture or an interesting fact or an
important issue, which is what traditional journalism and media was all about.

Wired: But storytelling through Instagram is a disciplined activity, no? Big Instagrammers like Bex
Finch, Foster Huntington and Theron Humphrey throw out 3 or 4 visual vignettes each day. Theyre
very canny aesthetically; theres no curveballs or outliers. Consistency and rhythm runs through
their images. People are free to decide if theyre good photographs or not.

Mayes: There is a quote from Kevin Systrom, one of the founders of Instagram in the New York Times
in 2011. We set out to solve the main problem of taking pictures on the mobile phone which is that
theyre often blurry and poorly controlled. We fixed that. Amanda Petrusich at Buzzfeed likened
Instagram to the Auto-Tune of photography. You can hit real bum notes and it tweaks it back into
an aesthetic form.

Wired: Why do we worry then about image, about filter?

Mayes: It has happened many times in the industry before we are trying to carve out relevance for
our profession. Weve dedicated our lives to learning skills and things we believe. Suddenly, were
wondering if they relevant any more and trying to justify and rationalize.

Should people pay journalists and photojournalists to do what they do? As long as someone wants
credible information the role of the professional remains important, but the role changes in that
professionals are no longer the eyewitness. Think of all those [photography compilation] books in
the 20th century which were called eye witness or the eyes of the world or something similar.
Thats no longer relevant when there are 4 billion cellphone eyes out there.

Professionals are valuable as commentators, interpreters, validators. We know what is happening in

Syria but for sifting all the detail and taking a position on all of that, we still look to the professionals.

Last year, during the Arab Spring, it was the good little guy against the big bad guy. Simple. Now,
we are seeing is a much more complex mix of bad little guys as well a good little guys. I am learning
all the different computations from experts people who are studying the form, researching it, being
present and reporting back out. Thats not something I can put together from Facebook. I need
someone to guide me through that very complex area.

We talked about the Tsunami earlier. What we have had from the professional photographers is not
the immediate drama of the event but weve had a just as visceral, but more studied exploration of
looking at the scale, in a way you cant get on a cellphone. Cellphones dont do scale. Cellphones do
the individual and his or her experience. Professional photographers can take an overview and can
introduce us to different elements looking at patterns, validating stories or recontextualising them.
For now, there is a role for us.

FURTHER READING

Instagram: Photographys Antichrist, Savior, Or Something In Between? (Huffington Post)

Dappled Things: Pinkhassov on Instagram (The New Inquiry)
Magnum Irrelevant? (Wall Street Journal)
Picturing Everyday Life in Africa (New York Times)
New Economies of Photojournalism: The Rise of Instagram (British Journal Of Photography)
Hipstamatic Revolution (Guernica Magazine)
Ben Lowy: Virtually Unfiltered (New York Times)
reFramed: In conversation with Richard Koci Hernandez (Los Angeles Times)
In an Age of Likes, Commonplace Images Prevail (New York Times)
Why Instagram is Terrible for Photographers, and Why You Should Use It (Photoshelter)
Instagram Isnt an App, Its a Publishing Platform (So Treat It Like One) (Photoshelter)
Everyone shoots first: reality in the age of Instagram (Verge)
Instagram Its About Communication (John Stanmeyer)
Stefano De Luigis iDyssey (The New Yorker)
Instagram, The Nostalgia Of Now And Reckoning The Future (Buzzfeed)

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