Some of the pictures in ‘The Human Face of Big Data’ will bring tears to your eyes; others are so surprising or memorable that you just have to show them to your friends and family. – Rick Smolan
My dad was actually against me being a photographer. He thought it was a dead-end job and that you end up doing baby pictures and weddings. – Rick Smolan
There are a number of fascinating stories included in ‘The Human Face of Big Data’ that represent some of the most innovative applications of data that are shaping our future. – Rick Smolan
Every time there’s a new tool, whether it’s Internet or cell phones or anything else, all these things can be used for good or evil. Technology is neutral; it depends on how it’s used. – Rick Smolan
Programmers have been wandering out and shooting a shotgun into the night sky and hoping they hit something, and I end up paying $150 for channels full of nothing I want to watch. – Rick Smolan
If you ask anyone on any street corner in the world what the Soviet Union looks like, they would probably have very strong opinions. And they probably would be wrong. – Rick Smolan
Big Data is just that – big. But, it’s a term that is largely misunderstood and difficult to explain. – Rick Smolan
One of the nice things about living in Silicon Valley is that I end up at all these conferences and things, and I get to listen in on the zeitgeist. – Rick Smolan
‘America 24/7’ will be a landmark series in documentary photography and the watershed event of the new digital photography age. – Rick Smolan
The goal of ‘Data Detectives’ is to spark the imagination of students around the globe by making them think about new technologies that will impact humanity in ways similar to language and art. – Rick Smolan
Netflix and Amazon know when you stop and start a program, whether you wanted the whole thing, all of that. – Rick Smolan
They’re trying to put data centers in cold environments because they’re actually generating so much heat now; they’re using up so much electricity. – Rick Smolan
The ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real time is something the human race has never had before. This new set of tools, often referred by the lofty term ‘Big Data,’ has begun to emerge as a new approach to addressing some of the biggest challenges facing our planet. – Rick Smolan
Those who fear that we are losing our individualism couldn’t be more wrong: Americans have never been more free to create and recreate themselves. – Rick Smolan
I think people love this idea of leaving a message for the future. I was always fascinated by the idea of time capsules. – Rick Smolan
What amazes me is that you can have 10 different photographers in the same room, and you see 10 different rooms. You realize how much of it is the person’s perspective rather than the situation itself. – Rick Smolan
Do you realize the FBI filing system from the ’50s was much more secure? How could you have stolen that data? It was on notecards. Now someone with a thumb drive, or remotely, can take the equivalent of millions of those notecards. – Rick Smolan
The people who are thinking most about big data right now are corporations and governments. – Rick Smolan
If you travel 11 months a year – from one dangerous or isolated situation to the next – if you live in hotels, and every relationship with another human being is a two-week relationship, the only other people who have any idea what you’re going through or how strung out you are are other photographers. – Rick Smolan
My company, Against All Odds Productions, has done print on demand; we were the first to do a book with a CD-ROM in the early 1990s. We do custom covers. It’s always fun to do something new. – Rick Smolan
Americans are changing right before our eyes. They are choosing different lifestyles, families, traditions and ways of living. – Rick Smolan
How do you photograph a gadget in a new, and not boring, way? You have to get away from people sitting in front of a computer. You have to get a look at the digital signature. – Rick Smolan
I’m not a computer person at all. I only know how to turn them on. I’m not a programmer. I couldn’t program my way out of a paper bag. – Rick Smolan
