It is only human nature to ask, explore, create and strive for progress and growth. As human thought and creativity develop, all spheres of life prosper, and photography is no exception. Photography may continue developing in numerous ways, but let’s consider some possibilities here.
Technological advancement
One possibility is that photography will progress due to technological advancement. Usually, the latest technologies aren’t accessible to ordinary people at first, but once they get replaced with new technologies, they become affordable and widely used. For example, superlenses, such as those used in the Hubble telescope, are currently only accessible to astronomers and laboratories. But if scientists find a way to create small variants of those superlenses, large ones will become affordable. Later we can expect those small super lenses to become cheaper as well.
New styles, new subjects, new ideas
New technologies and new types of cameras may lead to novel directions in the development of photography in the form of new styles and techniques. What attracts photographers’ attention nowadays may be boring in the near future. Artists may look for new Muses and sources of inspiration, while common people may take photos of the universe or microorganisms. After all, human imagination has no boundaries, so it is reasonable to expect that new styles and techniques will emerge thanks to gifted individuals and their artwork. We’ve already experienced it many times that something we could only see in movies becomes reality.
Privacy
Another factor that could have an influence on the future development of photography is related to privacy. It is widely known that, for certain justifiable reasons, governments need to track or film people or eavesdrop on their conversations. The issues of privacy and national security are quite topical at the moment and there is a lot of public discussion, so we are yet to see how these issues will be resolved. However, one possibility is that the data gathered through this tracking equipment could be made public by government officials in order to increase transparency and public safety. This could lead to dramatic shifts when it comes to the purposes of taking photos.
Development of AI
Finally, we must not forget to mention the potential influence of AI on the future development of photography. We can already see dramatic changes in various fields due to the rise of AI. In the future, at the point when AI reaches the level of the human brain, we may find robots or androids taking photos instead of human beings. We can only wonder whether AI will be able to develop a sense of beauty and how much it will differ compared to what people have considered beautiful throughout history.