175 Years of Photography: The Impact of Images
Art, nostalgia and the historical record have been photography's progeny since the medium's birth 175 years ago. Today a whole new mindset permeates picture-taking--a shoot-everything-all-the-time mania with instantaneous transmission via Snapchat, Instagram and beyond. By 1930, the world had captured 1 billion photos. Today, we shoot that many every six hours. Facebook alone will receive 208,300 uploads in the next minute. How does the compulsion to share the minute-to-minute minutia of living affect living itself? Do we miss our experiences while documenting them? Is life in front of a camera real or acting? This panel looks at photography's evolving uses and its impact on civilization - from its aesthetic power to the way it chronicles epic events, provokes emotion and shows us who we are.
