Tomorrow's "decisive moments"

In the Guardian, curator William A Ewing wonders about the "decisive moments" of the future in a strong think-piece about digital photography. "The digital revolution is implicitly democratic, levelling the playing field and blurring the line between amateur and professional. The cheapest camera on the market advises, questions, scolds, adjusts, corrects. The little electronic genie within tells us when we can do what we want, and when we can't. It makes a mockery of the expert... Photojournalists now find themselves upstaged by amateurs, who just happen to be on the spot of some catastrophic event and are eager to share "breaking news" with millions. Even those of us with bottom-of-the-line digital cameras (or mobile phones) are achieving images of satisfactory quality. Amateurs with artistic pretensions may soon be buying aesthetic software, inserting a Cartier-Bresson chip to guarantee that shots come out as "decisive moments", or a Bill Brandt chip to ensure moody, contrasty nudes. For observers of photography, it seems like a turning point full of crazy, creative promise. But for serious young photographers about to embark on careers as artists, such widespread democracy poses a threat. What room in this everyone-is-a-photographer-world, they may ask, can there possibly be for me? And assuming there are a substantial number of committed, curious young people willing to take up the challenge of photography in this moment of breathtaking change, how do we go about finding them?" [More at the link.]