Millions of Images
“The average person looks at more images in one day than people looked at in their entire lives 50 years ago.”
-Dennis Keeley
Chair, Photography and Imaging
Art Center College of Design
What an amazing thought! I heard this in a meeting last week with the chair of the photography department at the art college where I work, and I think it is fascinating. I know we are bombarded on a daily basis with images — ads, TV shows, magazine spreads, blogs and even those cute pictures of your kids that you can’t stop looking at on Flickr.
So how should we process all this information without going into information overload? And should this affect the way we shoot or influence our content?
Responses and Conversations
What an interesting thought! I know digital-imaging and computers in general have upped the image quotient tremendously, but does one have to assume, then, that if you’re looking at “images” you’re not looking at something else (say like a flower or a tree) and that your “daily-observation-level” remains the same as people 50-years ago?
Comment by JimmyD on September 29th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
That is very true! Artists affect people and their thoughts more than anything else nowdays. You see it wherever you go. Billboards, ads, television, the internet. Art is everywhere. This makes me want to use the minimal photography skills that I have to communicate..
Comment by Mike on October 1st, 2006 at 10:27 am
Great thoughts, you guys.
Jim, I’ve never thought about it like that — that we might be “seeing” the same amount of things, but now the things we look at more often are produced (billboards, flickr photostreams) rather than just something occuring in nature (like a flower).
Comment by Amy Frazier on October 2nd, 2006 at 2:47 pm