In 1979 the Buggles recorded this pop logic hit.
Prophetically and intentionally in 1981 it became the first music video to air on MTV. It would be the short lived Buggles only hit.
And my point?
More and more video competes with what used to be the traditional province of photography. A quick review of social media confirms that more and more of these message masters are adding or expanding their video capabilities. Most cameras include video capabilities and more and more of those capabilities mean high definition video, including 4k. Of course, like almost all things social media related, cell phones are the major driver of this video first phenomenon. After all, social media platforms don’t do 4k or high-res in general.
The attraction to video is understandable. Videos are little movies and people don’t make blockbusters of photographic exhibits. This is a video of my turntable playing a cut from the double album reissue of Moby’s 1999 hit album Play on blue vinyl.
This is a photograph of one of my turntables with the National’s latest album pressed in white vinyl.
Not apples to apples, but it doesn’t need to be for my obvious point that the video is simply more engaging. But, unless we are in Harry Potter land, videos must be loaded and played unlike photographs. Photographs are instantaneous in their depiction of our memories. Photographs engage us by inducing our brains to replay our memories, whereas videos simply ask us to watch and consume. Videos, for now at least, will not replace photographs. In the future, however, we may indeed see a blending of the two to the point that our inanimate photos of the past will seem quaint, but ridiculously old fashioned.
Slides anyone?