Imagine you spent years studying, practicing, and perfecting a craft, and that your creative output was well-regarded and appreciated. Then somebody invents and manufactures a machine — or develops an app — that renders your knowledge and skills unnecessary or insignificant, even if the new machine produces output of lesser quality. How would you feel? How would this affect your participation in your craft?
Read When Photos Looked Like Paintings — Pictorialism to find out how Stieglitz and like-minded photographers reacted when faced with a similar dilemma.
