We live in a world where video consumption trumps all other forms of media. From short-form social media footage and attention-grabbing YouTube clips to the Netflix flavor of the month, it’s video, video, video. As a photographer that can feel a little disheartening, especially if your worth as a creative lives and dies by your Instagram, which has long transitioned from a photo-first to a video-first model.
I won’t deny that the photograph’s relevance has diminished. But much like the written word, it’s far from obsolete. That’s because the photograph has something that video could never have, and rather ironically, it’s the very thing that has made video so much more popular: A still image is a still image – it doesn't move.
A moving image, then, stimulates the brain more, producing a more satisfying hit of dopamine. Pair that with rapid-fire short-form content and you’ve got an addictive loop that’ll have you ignoring the pins and needles and back pain while you ‘doomscroll’ on the toilet for 40 minutes. Has anyone ever done that while pouring through Bresson’s The Decisive Moment? Unlikely…
So how could moving imagery ever be at a disadvantage? Well, it moves, it’s fleeting. The creator has little control over the point at which the viewer engages or disengages with the work (they could miss the crux altogether). And while the viewer may be able to watch the video multiple times, pause it or rewind, it’s much harder to pour over the crux, the climax, the decisive moment.
A still image on the other hand affords both creator and viewer much more control. The former is precisely delivering the decisive moment to the viewer, short of walking away, they cannot avoid it. And the viewer is able to engage with the content more deeply. This has the potential to increase impact, remove ambiguity and encourage deeper analysis.
And the proof is in the pudding. When you think about defining moments in human history such as the moon landing or 9/11, as well as cultural icons like Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley, you tend to think of photographs. Photography has become synonymous with pivotal moments and despite the rise and rise of video, I’d argue that imagery is still largely (not entirely) preferred today.
I recently watched Disney+ documentary Love+War, which is a film about Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photographer, Lynsey Addario. When I think about the Ukraine war, I find it difficult to separate the many snippets of video that have been played over and over on the news and social media. But Lynsey’s harrowing photograph of four dead Ukrainian civilians, which was published on the front page of The New York Times, is etched in my mind.
The same can be said for the attempted assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. Video footage was repeated on the news, ad nauseam, but interestingly, it’s the photograph by Evan Vucci of a bloodied Trump, fist aloft, surrounded by Secret Service agents and framed against the Star-Spangled Banner that has endured. Why? Because that was the decisive moment and Vucci's camera immortalized it in a way that the video footage simply cannot. You cannot help but remember it.
And that’s the power of a great photograph. It reaches out, grabs the viewer by the lapel and shakes them. There’s no waiting for the impact, the impact is instantaneous and it lasts as long as the viewer lets it. A video can provide more context, it can take the viewer on a longer, arguably more intricate, journey, but the photograph is the knockout blow.
I’m not suggesting that photography is superior to video, but I am making it clear that photography is in no way inferior. We need both forms of media. But in this ever-changing AI-infused world where people have become more cynical of imagery than ever, professional photographers must be protected at all costs. The photograph, the still image, the single frame is arguably more important now than it ever has been before.
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