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-  it is the medium of our time, not just defining our globally connected digital image culture, but propelling it. Even a decade ago, no one could have predicted the seismic shift that has occurred in our relationship with – and use of – the photographic image. 

- By 1964, 5m Polaroid cameras had been produced. The proliferation of Polaroid snapshots marked the first wave of democratic photography

-  what an image-propelled social media culture is doing to us? Where is our agency in a world so dominated and driven by digital technology, so controlled by global corporations and invisible algorithms?
One answer is that it is simply preparing us for the next seismic shift in technology: artificial intelligence. 

The arrival of the smartphone camera made all those concerns seem antiquated. It precipitated a new image culture in which photographs have assumed a fresh importance in our digitally mediated world, particularly the sharing of photographs on platforms like Instagram, where they are measured in likes, comments and repostings, all monitored by algorithms. Photography reflects, records and advertises our lives online. Is it, though, exhausting itself through its very ubiquity, losing its meaning in an age of almost unimaginable image overload?——What next for photography in the age of Instagram?

卫报这篇文章提到了一些我没想到但模糊困扰到我的问题，文章结尾处是一份异常古典的募捐提示，我很有意地点了进去，想支持新闻专业主义的保卫者，但是，最后还是被支付方式拦住了，需要从椅子上起身，走去另一个房间，摸到手提包里的钱包，找到那张贴有visa标签的信用卡，再返回椅子，逐字输入卡号，这一连串动作在脑子里转了一圈之后，就迅速打消了支持者的行动力。
摄影面临的问题，银行业同样面临。在这个领域，中国金融从业者面对移动支付入侵的经验，大概领先世界，毕竟，我们去村里小菜店买根葱都能用手机支付。

作为一个人的合法性与合理性大概是困扰我们每一个人的问题，一生之中，或多或少，总会跟它打照面，就算它出现的形式可能千变万化，但几乎普遍适用，精神状况异常者是另一条故事线。后来发现，这两个终极问题其实也合适套用任何人造的东西上，物或概念。就像作者提到的， Back in 2012, the anxieties of many photographers tended to converge around the notion of authenticity: would digital technology undermine the craft of analogue photography and, more worryingly, its veracity? Would the invisible hand of Photoshop render not just the process, but the so-called “truth” of photography, obsolete?

到了今天，这些忧虑都不攻自破了。为了维护1839年诞生的摄影术的合理性与合法性，相关者们提出了很多理由，但是，在另一群原本看起来毫不相关的人操纵下，智能手机竟然成了传统摄影的掘墓人。现在看起来，是老师傅快被乱拳打倒了，可话又说回来，智能手机并没有消灭掉影像，反而是令它海量倍增，感受到身份危机的是传统器材和它所创造出来的整个小宇宙。

我保证，明天一定老老实实把信用卡捧来，用2018年的古典方式支持你——卫士们。