Are Amateur Photographers Scapegoats for an Industry in Crisis? – LightBox

For Samuel Bollendorff, a French photographer and documentary filmmaker, amateurs are just scapegoats for a profession that has refused to accept its share of responsibility in its economic struggles. “My role as a photographer, at least the way I see it, is to try to understand how people around me produce, distribute and consume images,” he tells TIME. “For the past few years, we’ve heard the worse things about amateurs, which are accused of having brought photojournalists to their knees. I thought it was important to take a look back at these claims and uncover these amateur images that have made the front pages over the years.”