The coming primacy of digital photography-in art, industry, and academia-is exemplified by the blockbuster 9/11 photo exhibition, "Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs." This project came together spontaneously soon after 9/11 and was composed of digital prints of photographs related to the World Trade Center attack, taken by both amateurs and professionals.
No other artistic response to 9/11 has had nearly the impact of this well-timed exhibition. It garnered extensive media attention, reached a huge audience, and touched people on every level. At the root of the show's success, the thing that made it possible in the first place, is digital photography, especially its relatively low cost, ease of use, and capacity for immediate capturing and dissemination of images.
The key factor in digital photography's promise is the Web, which offers a direct channel to the world, a way to bypass the conventional network of editors, critics, gallerists, and other gatekeepers. It empowers the creative, industrious individual and is a democratic means of expression and documentation.
"Here is New York" was co-organized by Charles Traub, chair of the School of Visual Arts' Photography and Related Media Department. His department has been in the vanguard of digital photography almost since the inception of this technology. "Here is New York," as an emblematic convergence of history, art, and technology, is a full realization of the department's guiding philosophy: The future of photography is digital.
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