With the ubiquity of smartphone cameras, digital cameras the ease of sharing images online, we are awash in camera generated images. The photo sharing sites seem to reward volume with quality being relegated to an inferior position. When people begin to share ALL their images art takes a turn for the worse. Image selection and editing have become lost arts.
Sadly, the continuing onslaught of visual overload is here to stay. The current trend (and I hope it is only going to last a short time – but not likely) is to have (almost) millisecond jump cuts between images in any presentation. Ninety photographs in sixty seconds would not seem to be out of the question. As one image appears you can only register the fact an image is in front of you before it is replaced by the next image.
One is left with only the vague impression of some images and the rest disappear from your memory. I surmise there are two reasons for presenting images at such a rate. One is to view as many the images as fast as possible before their mediocrity becomes apparent. Two, in the question of style over substance, style wins out.
I fear this fad will not pass quickly.
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