Instagram As Fine Art

I'm picking on this woman, because she just happened to state, very clearly, a sentiment I've heard quite a bit lately.

"It is easy to take a good picture and so hard, almost impossible, to take a great picture. It takes years of labor to do this well. Photography is a craft, an art, a point of view. Instagram is not meant to be fine art or a beautiful object; it is social media—a means of communication." - Mary Ellen Mark (via Featureshoot).

Actually, it works in exactly the opposite direction. The most important photos in history were shot from the hip. They were easy.

Photography is not a craft. Printmaking is a craft. Photography is an art. No one gets to say Instagram isn't meant for fine art. Anything is fine art.

I would also hope art is a "means of communication" as well.

It's fun to watch the handwringing among the art crowd. But, what we're really watching is the dying of an idea. The idea that good ideas in photography, ideas worthy of the gallery, are scarce. They're not. Connections in the fine art market are scarce.