162
made three dollars a picture
shooting for The Quincy Sun, al-
most everything about photography
has changed.
Film is practically nonexistent
today. Smartphones, for many peo-
ple, have largely replaced cameras.
Instead of waiting hours to see
whether their handful of shots have
succeeded or failed, photographers
can snap hundreds of photos and
simply look down at their digital
screens and erase the ones they don't
OiNe or appOy a EriJKteninJ fiOter anG
post them to Instagram anyway).
"Photographers used to be
magicians," says Liss, who spent 30
years shooting for Time magazine.
"What went on within that black
1995 Oklahoma
City bombing vigil
In the more than four decades since Steve Liss
box of a camera, that was magic.
And when you went into the dark-
room and saw the image coming up
tKroXJK tKe GeYeOopinJ ȵXiG, tKat
was magic. That's lost now."
What's not lost, for Liss, is the
importance of craft—the hard
work and expertise he says is still
necessary to capture a compelling
news image, even in the digital age.
"Knowing when to push that button
is a skill that's acquired over years
of learning and growing and practic-
ing the craft," he says. "I was trained
to look at every corner of the frame.
I couldn't hit the delete button.
There it was, right in front of me.
Was there tension in the frame? Had
I used the space well? Just because
