This seems so obvious, but based on the number of people who still post vertical photos, it clearly isn’t. The world of vertical photography, once dominated by hanging portraits, magazine covers, passport and school photos, and leather-bound albums, has come to an end. We look at everything horizontally: our computers, our phones, our TVs. Our eyes are side by side, not one on top of the other. It’s time for a moratorium on vertical photos.
The Web is inherently a horizontal medium, a point hammered home in a 2012 YouTube public service announcement decrying the practice of vertical video—that annoying sliver of garbage that happens when you forget to turn your cellphone sideways before recording the latest road rage incident or your buddy’s ill-advised cliff jump. Since so many iconic news events are now recorded on cellphones, I’m convinced that vertical video will be the defining, unfortunate look of our era. That PSA reminds us that we can turn a photo sideways but not a video.
Original Post
