I would like to continue thinking through what I introduced the other day about how expectations and advances in technologies are changing the practice of photography. A low-level photographic practice was described as a snap shot, but it could also be what news photographers call the "grip and grin" or the "shin plaster." Low-level practices often do not consider the essential characteristics of making a photograph compelling -- immediacy, intensity and intimacy. Expectations are directly linked to how satisfied an individual is with the photograph they make, of course, but there is also the social function of the image to consider. One way to think about low and high levels of photographic practice is by considering how tolerant the viewer is of the ambiguities in the frame. A tolerance of ambiguities is essentially a heuristic process -- a way in which meaning is made through discovery.
Since pictures are so heavily context dependent, a person's tolerance of ambiguities would change depending upon familiarity, memory, and emotional attachment to the subject. Low-level photographic practices other privilege content and context over composition and technique. Suffice it to say, that in high-level photographic practices, the photographer is more conscious of not only the content, but also acutely aware of compositional and technical matters as well.
Increasingly, people are becoming more visually literate about the persuasive nature of images. People are becoming more away of the importance of technique and composition in the process. And the cameras are making this all the more easier.
In addition, with photo-sharing on the Internet, communities of photographers have formed to offer advice and support for improving photography at all levels. Even digital point and shoot cameras offer a level of sophistication that allows people to move beyond just snapping a picture to think about what's in the frame.
The distinction between low-level and high-level practices in photography is changing. Pictures uploaded to the Web from just about anyone can now end up illustrating a news story or selling a product in an advertisement. At the same time, this doesn't herald the death of professional photography or photojournalism. It simply means that photography is getting a whole better.