As a group, I don't think many young photographers give a shit about the history of this art. At least in my experience.

I know I must have visibly winced. He looked at me quizzically. I looked back and had visions of the thought bubble floating above his head: "Why teach history when there are so many Photoshop plug-ins to master? History, after all, is about old, unimportant, obsolete, insignificant, inconsequential dead guys." Never in my life have I so desperately wanted an EM pulse gun to aim at a snot-nosed kid's hard drive.

via daily.lenswork.com

History of photography as an elective.

And he has an MFA in photography.

And, I would presume, a hefty student loan.

I think this is nearly criminal, but then I believe nearly all MFA's in art are worthless documents that exist to keep the Universities in the money.

The more I discuss photography with younger photographers, the more I am struck with the knowledge that it is not that they are too busy to learn the rich history of their medium.

It is that they don't want to.

Photography itself has become so easy that any attempt to infuse it with something of a higher level is resisted.

Shoot it, run it through Snapseed.

Art.

Next!