Art Terry, a professor at the University of Memphis with over 50 years experience in photography, on Damon Winter of the New York Times winning third place in the annual “Pictures of the Year” competition with a photo shot with an iPhone and the app Hipstamatic:
Photography is about seeing, recording the world around you from your own unique point of view and perspective. Apparently for some, if you want to see the world as a journalist you have to use a certain kind of equipment. We are past the days of the rangefinder Leica with black and white film — at least for every day use. I hated to part with mine. These critics need to get over it and move on.
Snobbery in any form is seldom excusable.
We have a new breed of haves and have nots these days. We really shouldn’t be playing the game of my camera is better than yours. Wedding photographers are having a hard time because uncle Charlie has a full-frame DSLR. While uncle Charlie may be proud of his high-priced machine and it will take impressively sharp and colorful images, that does not make him a wedding photographer. Sadly, while many newspaper editors would want to make it so, putting a camera in the hands of a reporter going to cover a story does not make that reporter a photojournalist.
Almost any camera, in the hands of a professional, can be made to take acceptable, if not exceptional photos.
Brilliant.