Saying Goodbye To The Kojo Nnamdi Show
On this last episode, we look back on 23 years of joyous, difficult and always informative conversation.
In the age of smart phones, flip cams and cheap digital cameras, virtually everyone can be a documentarian. Bystanders can capture images and videos that land on the news or go viral on the Web. But these devices are also changing the way we interact with each other in profound ways. Kojo examines how ever-present cameras are impacting culture.
Guests
- Matthew Barrick Professional Photographer; and Adjunct Professor, Catholic University
- Philip Kennicott Culture Critic, Washington Post
- Keith Jenkins Senior Supervising Producer for Multimedia, National Public Radio
Citizen Photography in News and Culture
An early example of commercial, tourist-oriented photography are Platt D. Babbitt’s daguerreotypes of tourists visiting Niagara Falls in the 1850s-70s. Babbitt took the photos without the tourists’ knowledge and then offered copies for sale as they left.
In the present day, commuters in London took cell phone photos of the 2005 London terrorist attacks and distributed them nearly instantly, giving the world a striking view of the chaos and damage.
More recently, and after the advent of Twitter, citizens immediately uploaded dramatic images of last year’s emergency landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson River.
NPR’s dedicated photography blog, The Picture Show, regularly deals with issues that affect citizen photographers.
Guest Matthew Barrick recently completed a photo project using his iPhone.
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