There’ s an interesting, somewhat heated discussion in a Flickr discussion forum about the merits of Second Life photographs being posted to the Flickr photo sharing site. For those who don’t know, Flickr has become a tremendous community gathering point for thousands of amateur, expert and professional photographers to share knowledge, feedback, suggestions and encouragement related to photography. (And you thought it was just for free photo hosting!)
Here’s the post that started the whole discussion off, entitled "Second Life aka Sadville People on Flickr":
Seeing the SL people on here with their fake profiles and in game
pictures seems ridiculous. I mean keep that shit in the game, now it’s
spilling out into the web like it is their real life. Anyone feel me on
this?
Lots of others apparently do. Some of the "real" photographers make the typically boring comments about Second Life residents needing to get a real life. Others note that Second Life photos are at least better then World of Warcraft images. There’s some discussion about how you even define what is and is not "photography."
As someone who enjoys both real world and virtual world photography, I don’t really get the debate. I know several skilled real world and virtual world photographers. The skillsets overlap but aren’t the same, just as people who shoot with film versus digital are practicing similar but not identical crafts. I can appreciate the talent, technical competence and artistry involved in the production of an image, whether it emerges from a computer screen or a Hasselblad.
So I find it sad that people choose to disparage the things they don’t understand.
I’ve seen this happen more than once this week – people tearing apart something they haven’t tried yet. I say to all you Flickr’s that can’t appreciate digital photography of a digital medium – “bug off”. Either try it or shut your trap. It’s quite sad to see Flickr turning elitist.
We tag them as CGI/Illustration, don’t we? (Well, at least I do.) So I don’t see the problem. At all. Idiots. Pfff.
Yeah, I love the irony of people who are engaged in building a virtual community deride other people for… building a virtual community.
I really want to respond on the thread (so glad Vint did!), but the most eloquent thing I can think of right now is “bite me.”
People who tear each other down for things they don’t understand really upset me. Can’t we leave the ‘cool kids’ mentality in high school?