Chatroulette’s Creator, 17, Introduces Himself

Those clever Russians!

I think this combination of fast, immediate, widespread consuming of visual content (online/RSS) and more detailed consuming of content (college classes) is interesting.

And I think it’s a little ironic that if it wasn’t for my many RSS subscriptions to photo blogs and the like, I never would have seen your post, thought about your post, and commented on it. Because of my subscriptions to blogs and because of your post, I’ll now be more aware of this line of thinking.

I fully expect that within any practice the good stuff is going to be given credence and respect; the blogs which offer novel points of view and avoid infantilising will be recognised as such pretty swiftly.

On the other hand, if people just want to digest the regurgitated then they’ve got plenty of options, right?

I think a break from blogging/internet/TV/feeds is going to do anyone a lot of good. I also think if you aren’t considering that break on a daily basis then you’ve lost guile, independence and autonomy – that might sound extreme but I think we’ve already underestimated the dumbing down of intellect and imagination due to our lives mediated by the screen.

Time will tell.

Eh, no one’s swallowing that bullshit this year, man. Can we please have some of these people banned from further participation as judges in the future?

And shouldn’t there be an artsy-fartsy contest somewhere with a ‘Still Life’ category in which Li Jie Jun’s toy soldiers could be entered? Regardless of whether or not they have a place in today’s media, I doubt it is in the category of Portraits, the category in which they placed 3rd. Is it even POSSIBLE to have a portrait of a non-living object??

There is room for toy soldiers, absolutely, in a pop art gallery. I’d even buy one myself to give someone as a joke. (maybe to the Capa foundation) Not in the press, (it has never been published in a newspaper or mainstream magazine as far as i know) and all those judges would never actually publish most of this (or last) year’s choices in their own magazines. it’s easy to see, the vast majority of last year’s choices never made it the main-stream media, and i doubt any of this year’s will. So World Press Photo, has little to do with the World (toy soldiers mimicking famous photos) and almost nothing to do with the Press this year.

You attack the photojournalists, for trying to abide to the travesty that is WPP to photojournalists, a freak show that you had a large hand in creating (look at the years that preceded you). Young photographers submit the crap that they do because that’s what you award, year after year.
When judges knowingly chose photos they themselves would never print, it says something about ego…

Not once did i hear you say anything in public about the editors or the wires killing our profession. Never did i hear you go out against the photographers that work with you when they give away their work for free (or almost free) thus putting another nail in the coffin of our younger generation.
And don’t get me started on the role your former employer (Getty) has in destroying what’s left of photojournalism.

How many of these awarded photos where pre-commissioned assignments? How many of these photographers make a decent living from their chosen profession?
Where are the voices of our time? The one time you have a public stage to the world of editors and publishers you turn around, (not that you don’t have their ear any day of the week) you turn around and shoot your poison at us. another nail in the coffin, like we needed that.

I had a lot of respect for you, you said you went to stock in order to come back and learn how to make money from photojournalism, i’m sure you’re pockets are full now, (ours are empty) but you forgot about responsibility towards your peers. I expected you to stand for us, not against us.

It’s time to give back, to use your power and status to show that you can make a positive change in our industry.