Mário Pires
Photographer and curator of Photography now! http://www.scoop.it/t/photography-now
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From Wired.com: "Rip Off the Filters - We Need a Naked Instagram"
There’s a time at every good house party, usually around 2 a.m., when it occurs to someone that while drinking and dancing is fun, it would be even more fun if everyone got naked and jumped into the pool. Well, at the rager that is Instagram – and all the other filter-heavy, photo-social parties out there – it’s 1:59 a.m., and the clothes are chafing.
It’s time for us to rip off our filters and just let it all hang out. Because like clothes, filters allow us to hide our insecurities. And when we take them off, surviving and triumphing over the vulnerability can be exhilarating.
Like clothes, filters allow us to hide our insecurities.Don’t get me wrong: These filters had, and continue to have, an important role to play in photography. Remember the excitement we felt when we first started using Instagram, or even vintage Lomography cameras? Whether app-ified on smartphones or effects on the cameras themselves, these filters add readymade contrast, color saturations, distortions, and other adjustments that make even the most mundane photos look, well, arty.
By lowering the barriers to entry, filters have democratized photography. Otherwise, many people find operating a serious camera to be a complicated, expert-only endeavor with a steep learning curve. It can also be frustrating, because people have to take a lot of bad photos before they start taking some good ones. Since there isn’t much of a positive feedback loop early on, it makes sense that algorithms or devices that make our very first photos pleasing would be fun and encouraging.
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Full article here:
