Probing Question: Are smartphones changing photography?

Although cell phone cameras are a recent innovation, they continue nearly 150 years of tradition that photography should be broadly accessible and an extension of our own experience. You're going to an amusement park with your family, where photo-ops abound. When packing up the sunscreen, water bottles and snacks for a day of roller coasters and skee-ball, you don't bother with your camera - after all, you'll have your smartphone, which you can whip out of your pocket and use to take a picture in seconds. It has been almost 25 years since the first digital cameras were introduced to consumers, and 10 years since the number of camera phones eclipsed the number of stand-alone digital cameras sold worldwide. Is the prevalence of smartphones changing the way we take photos? Yes and no, according to Assistant Professor Katarin Parizek , who teaches photography in Penn State's School of Visual Arts. "Image making and image transmission using cell phone cameras has become part of our popular culture," she explains. Eastman Kodak company was founded in the late 19th century on the premise that cameras should be accessible and easy to use for a broad audience.