A culture of images or of photographs?

What is the current state of play in photography today? The saying that we live in society of the image rings truer today than ever before. Indeed, the digital era appears to be replacing photography with more superficial and less essential images. “Taking photographs is like being on a speeding train admiring wonderful scenery, but to take a picture of it, you need to get off that train”. This quote from Berengo Gardin is the starting point for a reflection on what being a photographer means today. It emphasises the need for a slow, profound timeframe totally unlike the tumultuous, self-referencing timescale that leads people to take tons of pictures, fill social media with selfies, and look at and instantly forget thousands of images. Whereas Berengo Gardin’s photographs are essential to help us understand the way we are and the way we were, and they will be all the more necessary in a few decades time, when they could well become the images that truly describe our society.