I always believed that photography was subjective, interpretive and certainly did not represent the truth, but I did think that its status as a societal and historical referent needed to be both safeguarded and illuminated....now photojournalism is devolving into yet another medium perceived as intending to shock, titillate, sell, distort.
Fred RitchinMany who are making cellphone images are advocates with a stake in the outcome of what they are depicting. In some ways this makes their work more honest and easier to read - they can also manipulate, although the work of professionals can be quite manipulative as well.
Fred RitchinOne cannot always summarize massive issues by looking at the life of one person or one family, or even one community.
Fred RitchinThere are very few instances where writers have also been effective image makers - different skill sets are required.
Fred RitchinThe slideshow "is a very primitive form that quickly becomes predictable and repetitive."
Fred RitchinThe decisive moment, the popular Henri Cartier-Bresson approach to photography in which a scene is stopped and depicted at a certain point of high visual drama, is now possible to achieve at any time. One's photographs, years later, may be retroactively rephotographed by repositioning the photographer or the subject of the photograph, or by adding elements that were never there before but now are made to exist concurrently in a newly elastic sense of space and time.
Fred Ritchin