They are everywhere. Magazines, Facebook, museums, and they show no sign of depleting. They have the power to horrify, disgust, and entertain yet appear to be only their prime with the source only growing. No, this is not the newest trendy disease, or movies with Natalie Portman and Jeff Bridges; they are photographers who think that buying a camera from BestBuy makes them the next cover artist for National Geographic.

Go onto any piece of social media or blog and there they will be. Pictures of landscapes, black and white trash, and flowers. There are literally millions of pictures of flowers. After the Facebook/Myspace boom of the mid-2000’s, putting pictures onto the Internet has become as easy as finding a radio station playing a Rihanna or Katy Perry song. The impact has even been heavily felt here at Serra, as said best by sophomore Chris Miller “Go on Facebook and half the pictures are black and white ones of beaches.” Unfortunately, these self-proclaimed photographers have done to the art of photography what Rebecca Black has done to the music industry, completely and utterly mutilated it. It is now a huge challenge to find an art show that does not detail black and white pictures of trash because the artist “finds beauty in things that society says are ugly.” Society does not say that trash is ugly; the definition of trash says that trash is ugly. Gray pictures of sewage pipes and cans do not make you an artist; they just make someone look like a hobo with a garbage fascination.

Now, this article is not by any means meant to discourage prospecting shutterbugs from taking pictures. There are many talented artists right here at Serra who should never stop taking pictures (a special shout out to Serra seniors Amy Yeung, and Kim Alverez to name a few) And please, for the love of God, stop using landscapes as profile pictures. No one knows who is friend requesting them and it just gets annoying! So for the talented handful of beautiful picture-takers, keep up the fantastic work, and for those who just bought a camera and found the black-and-white setting, beware the dangers of “noob” photography.