Sadly, the Toronto Star has killed its annual "Big Picture of the Month" feature which used to run daily each August. I guess photography isn't worth celebrating any more.
It's too bad there wasn't some sort of – oh, I don't know – big sports event happening. If you could somehow get the world's best athletes together, that might help create some interesting and inspiring photos. The paper could celebrate photography that celebrates human achievement.
Failing that, it's too bad the Star is just a start-up. Imagine if the paper was, say, 120 years old. Think of the pictures it could pull from its archive! Each day in August, maybe it could rerun a picture from the corresponding day somewhere in the past 120 years.
What if the paper could figure out a way to involve the little people? Sorry, I forget their names .... it's those people we take for granted .... the folks who give us their daily loose change. Oh yeah, the readers.
| Aside: The Star used to run an annual photo contest for readers and it was a big deal. Now, the paper continues to run only its writing contest. But that's a good thing because today, anyone can take a great picture: just push a button and let the digital camera do all the work. No talent required, just Hipstamatic.
But writing! Reasonably good spelling is not enough. Apparently, getting the words in the right order requires a lot of work. | |
If only school kids had some spare time during the summer. Then, it might be possible to have a photo contest for them: "What I did on my summer vacation", "What inspires me", "The best thing about my neighbourhood", "What needs to be changed".
Imagine if the city of Toronto had a photo archive. Imagine having ~156 years worth of *free* pictures to choose from. Each day in August, the paper could run an old picture alongside the exact same view today.
Oh well. Pictures are a waste of time anyway. All they do is take up space. It's not like anyone looks at them. The fact that Rupert Murdoch's
The Daily just announced it's closing its entire editorial department, and minimizing its sports department, in favour of boosting its use of visuals (graphics, photography and video) because it's been proven that visuals, not text, draw readers, doesn't really mean anything.