Last year I abruptly stopped viewing two photoblogs I had previously enjoyed very much. The reason I stopped looking? I was overwhelmed by how cruel people can be. That sounds so naive and childish but it's the truth. In the first instance the photographer had posted a photo of a little girl with a chubby belly in her bathing suit at the beach. The girl was smiling and beautiful. The photographer didn't see so much beauty and instead made a cruel comment about her stomach and weight. Many of the comments on the photo were worse. Much, much worse. Apparently the world really hates fat people, even fat little girls enjoying a day at the beach, and the commentors had no hesitation about spewing extremely cruel comments about a child whose photo had been posted on the internet. I was horrified at the things the people would say and even more so that the photographer seemed to have posted the photo just to get the kind of reaction he got.

The other photoblog I stopped viewing is very popular and I've seen many people admiring the photographer's work. The post that turned me off the photographer was of an older women in summer enjoying an afternoon out. She was wearing quite small, tight clothes and looked as though she'd been drinking quite a bit at the bar. Did the photographer take and post the photo just to elicit cruel comments about the woman? Honestly I don't know but my gut says yes. I think he took and posted the photo to make fun of her and the internet loves nothing more than a pile on.

I myself have taken and posted a photo of people because their appearance made me chuckle. The difference I think is that I was doing it good naturedly. I didn't want people to say mean things about the women in my photo and if anybody had I would have deleted the comment and pointed out that cruelty is not what my photography is about.

I mention this now because there seems to be a semi-common thread in photoblogs and Flickr of posting pictures that are very unflattering to the subjects or that were taken with the express purpose of mean spiritedly making fun of the subject. Or photos are posted and the comments immediately go into disparaging, cruel remarks about the subject and the photographer doesn't intervene and human kindness goes right out the window.

The ease and immediacy of digital cameras and online photo sharing tools seem to allow the lowest common denominator to creep into our photographic endeavors. An easy picture for a quick laugh, or a fast growing cruelty filled comment thread that pulls in traffic are easy enough to accomplish. That doesn't make them right though. I respect the medium of photography and enjoy photoblogging too much to enjoy them become simple tools for cruelty.