This weeks Sports Illustrated has a remarkable article by Steve Rushin, documenting the 60th Anniversary of the magazine. He follows the career of Vin Scully, the amazing announcer for the Dodgers, a team owner, an agent, and the guy who started ESPN. He follows them through the last 60 years, equating their careers with the sports world..
Toward the end of the article, he explores the phenomenon of the “selfie.”He quotes Hugh Lurie, who says that there have been more photographs taken in the last year than in the entire history of photography!! He goes on to say:
Because people are now photographing- I shudder to think what they are photographing- everything and nothing. No interaction is deemed to have actually happened unless someone has a photograph to prove it. I think this is odd, and I think that it may be starting to alter the way we think about each other and the way we think about general day-to-day social interaction.
Rushin goes on to cite David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, who took a selfie of himself with President Obama to fulfill a contract with Samsung to promote their phones.
So last week I was photographing Mexican Folk Pop singer Lila Downs. There were three photographers in the pit, myself and my friend Brigette, and a young kid who obviously didn’t belong there. During the first three songs, he continually crashed into me, and several time hit me on the head with his camera- not on purpose- he was so excited to be there that he could not concentrate on what was going on around him. I never once saw him actually take a picture! So I sat down to wait until he left after the third song. At the end of the song he came over and sat down next to me, held out his camera, and asked me to take a picture of him with Lila in the background. I refused, telling him that that was not a very professional thing to do. He responded that he was just there for fun. I walked away, and he soon left. Guess they will let anyone in the photo pit these days.