Let’s stop pretending twisting a dinky little aperture ring makes you a creative. Photography is the most overrated "art form" in existence. You point a sensor at something that already exists, let the light do all the work, and then slap a VSCO preset on it. Congrats, you are a visionary.
Your vintage film stock does not matter. Your “bokeh” is not deep. It is just background blur because you shot wide open on a 1.4 lens with no actual subject matter. Stop acting like shallow depth of field is a personality.
Macro photography might qualify. At least there is intention framing micro-details the eye usually misses. It forces creativity through limitation. But 99 percent of you are just fags that spend way too much time on Lightroom.
Street photographers are the worst. Hiding behind 28mm lenses pretending you are documenting “life” while waiting for someone cool to walk past graffiti. That is not art, that is content farming. Landscape shooters? You drove to a tourist spot, set up your tripod like a sheep, bracketed some exposures, and now you are preaching about dynamic range. You do not compose. You crop. You do not expose. You chimp and pray. You do not direct. You hope. Videography at least demands something. Timing. Movement. Emotion. A camera operator who actually knows their stuff can tell a story in one continuous take.
And let us not even talk about the gear circlejerk. Mirrorless versus DSLR. Full frame versus crop. “I only shoot film.” Mate. You are burning money to feel superior while still shooting the same overexposed alleyway as every others to post on some obscure photography forum because you do not have any friends.
Photography died when autofocus got fast and editing got easy. Now it is just a dopamine slot machine for people too scared to admit they have no vision and no voice.