A Smartphone is Not a Photographic Tool

I have an electric kettle that contains a ring of blue leds along the bottom. It lights the water up bright blue while heating. There is no practical reason that it should do this. It simply exists as a way to distinguish itself from other electric kettles. A desperate plea to look cool and give you a reason to purchase it over any other electric kettle.

For over a decade now the US economy has relied on cell phone sales as a major market. But now every phone is essentially the same. It is a black rectangle with a glass front. There is not a whole lot of room for one phone to distinguish itself from another. In fact, the only way they really can is with the camera.

This is why when you see a new phone release (I'm looking at you Apple) the camera is the only thing they talk about. Actually, these days it's usually more than one camera. There will be a wide camera, a narrow camera, a camera that sees in the dark, one camera that uses lidar and can capture your cat videos in 3d. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. Can you have too many cameras on a phone? I submit to you that you cannot.

And yet the pictures are terrible. They are vacuous and sterile. Harsh right? But honestly look at any photo from your phone (any phone really) and tell me you are inspired. You cannot say why really. They just do not feel right.

Allow me to elucidate for you.

When you hit that shutter button on your phone it instantly takes ten exposures under various conditions, then combines only the best parts of every image, combining HDR and focusing information. Then it tampers with the colors making everything hyper-vivid. It screws with skintones making everyone have a perfect complexion. Gone are the shadows. Gone is any natural focus. None of it looks real because it isn't.

Your eyes do not see the world this way. And these pictures from your phone are so stuffed with the visual equivelant of monosodium glutemate that your brain reels when you look at them. They are empty lifeless perversions of the reality you were trying to capture.

But Phone Manufacturers Will Fix This Right?

No. Actually not only have they learned nothing they are leaning harder into computational photography and introducing AI. They call it photo 'remixing.'

Are you a 30 year old woman who needs to look 20 until the day you die? Good news. The latest round of phone cameras will help you lie to yourself and others.

You can take pictures in your house and your phone will remove all the dirty laundry. Take some pictures outside and remove all the ugly neighborhood kids from the background.

And every new phone does it more and more and more in a desperate attempt to grab your attention with the only thing they can distinguish on.

There is no bottom.

Whatever is going on here is not photograghy.

The Kids Know Better

And now you have the real reason that Gen Z would rather take pictures on a 20 year old point and shoot digicam. It feels better because it IS better.

It feels natural and legitimate BECAUSE IT IS.

There is no great mystery here. This is not about nostalgia.

You have entire generations of people that are searching for anything real and that includes legitimate photographic tools. Real cameras.