????2013年春年，有兩張數碼照片在網絡上引起了轟動。第一張攝于2005年，畫面中是人頭攢動的梵蒂岡教廷廣場，人們在教皇若望?保祿二世的葬禮上舉行悼念活動。這張照片是從后面拍攝的，滿眼望去，都是翹首向前看的背影，只有照片的右下角，有一支孤零零的翻蓋手機對準一座陽臺進行拍照。第二張照片幾乎是在同一個地方拍攝的，畫面中是正在歡迎新加冕的方濟各教皇的人群。這兩張照片幾乎一模一樣，區別只有一點。在2013年的這張照片中，大大小小的屏幕匯成了光暈的海洋，人們高高舉起自己的iPhone、iPad和安卓手機，見證這歷史性的一刻。

????拍攝第一張照片和第二張照片之間的短短幾年，發生了一些影響深遠的事情：物美價廉、操作簡便的照相機已經進入了千家萬戶。根據一位分析師的估算，在2012年生產的智能手機和平板電腦中，大約有10億部都帶有照相功能。這些攝像頭讓幾十億人都成了攝影師，只要學會最基本的操作，就能捕捉和分享任何影像。人們不需要懂得照相機的工作原理，不需要知道什么是光圈，也不用學習怎樣在暗房里沖洗膠卷。攝影不再是專業攝影師的專利，大家需要做的只是點開相機，然后拍照、分享。

????根據華爾街證券分析師和投行家瑪麗?米克爾今年5月28日發布的《年度互聯網趨勢報告》，如今我們每天都會在互聯網上上傳、分享18億張照片。這樣海量的照片已經徹底重新定義了“攝影”的含義。圖片再也不是什么稀罕東西，因為它們實在是太多了。照片曾經一度被視為藝術被人珍藏，或者被當作記憶的定格被人儲存，但現在它已經成了一種新的語言，一種人人都懂、人人都會用的畫面語言。近年來，我們已經看到了一種新的視覺詞匯的興起。除了照片，還有表情符號、視頻片段、GIF動畫和其它圖片形式，它們已經可以取代很多過去我們需要依賴文字來表述的東西。

????這種大規模的轉變以前在歷史上也出現過。一直到離我們不算很遠的歷史時期，讀書寫字都是專業人士的工作，只有一小部分受過教育的抄經人和宗教人士的文化程度達到了能夠翻譯宗教典籍和制訂契約的程度。15世紀，歐洲人如果能拼寫出自己的名字，就算是識字了，但是有80%的人都拼寫不出自己的名字。然而隨著印刷機的出現，不到一個世紀，人們的閱讀量越來越大，識字的人已經可以用筆墨表達復雜的含義。識字者的大規模增加直接促進了科學、教育和藝術的進步。現在我們在圖片上也進入了一個類似的時期，智能手機和互聯網所起的作用正如當年的活字印刷術，而些這些工具現在仍然處于發展的早期。

????In the spring of 2013, two digital photos became an Internet sensation. The first, taken in 2005, depicts a crowd gathered at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s funeral. It is shot from behind—backs of heads turned up, and in the bottom right corner, a lone flip phone pointing toward a balcony. The second, taken from an analogous spot in 2013, depicts another throng welcoming the new leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis. The photos are nearly identical except for one defining feature. In the 2013 shot, a sea of screens—iPhones, iPads, Androids—rise up above the heads of onlookers, offering a powerful permanent form of witness.

????Something profound has happened in the time between that first photograph and the second: cheap, dead-simple cameras have crept into everything. By one analyst’s estimate, a billion cameras were added to smartphones and tablets manufactured in 2012. All these cameras have made billions of people into photographers, able to capture and share images of anything with a basic technical proficiency. No one needs to know how a camera works. No one needs to know what an f-stop is, or how to manipulate darkroom chemicals. No one has to be a good photographer to take good photos. One only has to point, shoot, and share.

????According to Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report, released May 28, we currently upload and share 1.8 billion photos every single day. This sheer abundance has redefined the nature of the photograph entirely. Pictures are no longer precious; there are just too many of them. Once collected and preserved as art, or to document memories, they are now emerging as a new language, one that promises to be both more universally understood and accessible to anyone. Witness the rise of a new visual vocabulary. Photos, along with emojis, video snippets, GIFS, and other imagery, are replacing written language for many of the things we once relied on words to express.

????We’ve seen this mass shift in literacy before. Until fairly recently in history, literacy was restricted to the professionals—a small group of educated scribes and religious figures understood to be fit to translate Biblical texts and render contracts. In the 1400s, Europeans were considered literate if they could spell their names—and 80% could not. Then came the printing press. Within a century, people could read and write in growing numbers, and the literate were able to express complex ideas in writing. This mass shift in literacy ushered in progress in science, general education, and the arts. We are now entering a similar period for images. Our smartphones and the Internet that enables them are the modern-day equivalent to movable type, and these tools are still very new.