ABSTRACT
T he future is very difficult to predict at the best of times, but even more so inthis period of rapid technological change. In the last twenty years or so we haveseen the introduction of the personal computer that has made possible the digital processing of images. Within that time the language of communication has shifted from a verbal linear mode to an iconic spatial character: from DOS to Windows. The end of the PC may now be in sight, with the Internet providing programs and information to a terminal that combines workstation and television. This may have the added benefit of placing greater emphasis on the broader areas of visual communication (in which photography has a significant role). Nonetheless, the traditional chemical analogue photographer may achieve enhanced status as the operator of a professional medium who is able to produce greater possibilities for authenticity and evidence than the photographer with a digital camera which may become the province of less serious journalism and of the amateur market. In this context, photography (as we knew it fifteen years ago) may become a specialist craft-based medium, as is print-making, yet with enhanced professional status as mentioned above.
