In a blistering open letter, the American Society of Media artists (ASMP) called Adobe's latest commercials a “shocking dismissal of photography and the photographers who have dedicated their lives to creating it.”
PetaPixel reported at the start of the month that Adobe was running social media ads with the tagline “skip the photoshoot.” The ASMP wrote an open letter to the Silicon Valley software behemoth, criticizing them for assaulting the innovators it relies on.
ASMP Chair Gabriella Marks writes, “As one of the largest professional associations representing photographers and all visual creators, and as our 6,500 members well know, creating a career in photography is harder than ever
While fighting these conflicts on several fronts, photographers would not have thought to have to defend themselves from the firm whose products are inseparable from their toolkit. Simply put, why would Adobe ignore everything your most loyal customers want?
"And this was an attack; an attack on the photographer's creativity, skill, and nuance, and the countless hours they spend preparing for and working after the photoshoot you so cavalierly throw away."
While you may adjust your campaign, temper your rhetoric, or otherwise blunt this wrath targeted at you, we hope this is not a transitory remedy.
The company's leadership seems to be on a different wavelength than artists and certain personnel in this and other situations.
“The reality is that there are way more stories that people want to tell than skills that exist to be able to tell that story with the soul that they want and the emotion that they want.”
Marks writes, “Great photography is born in the vision of the photographer first, and then brought to life by the artisans who have focused their creative energy for years and decades to make the final image.” Not mechanical, not button- or algorithm-replaceable. Great photography is passion, not pixels, despite your claims.