Q: Misa, why do you think people don’t read anymore?
A: Because reading asks for respect, for time, for words, for others.
Most want clarity without effort, trust without attention.
They scroll through meaning and call it understanding.
We live in an age where everyone signs without reading, reacts without understanding, and performs knowledge without ever touching it.
It’s not ignorance, it’s something worse: the illusion of being informed.
People scroll through complexity like they scroll through stories, fast, emotional, forgettable.
They want the meaning without the words, the feeling without the thought, the art without the framework that makes it possible.
And when a photographer like me places a document, a simple, protective, transparent agreement, in front of them, everything suddenly becomes too much.
The Fear of Reading
“Too much information,” they say.
But what they mean is: “Too much responsibility.”
Reading demands presence.
It demands effort, attention, humility, the courage to confront the meaning behind a word before judging it.
Gen Z, especially, has inherited a paradox: they live in the most connected time in history, yet are terrified of depth.
They’ve been trained to believe that clicking “accept” equals understanding, that a 15-second clip can replace a 5-minute conversation, and that clarity is oppressive because it removes the thrill of ambiguity.
But when you don’t read what you sign, you’re not protecting yourself, you’re erasing your own agency.
The Photographer’s Dilemma
I write, explain, and document because I believe in mutual respect, not legalism.
My releases are not traps; they’re architecture.
They exist so that your image, your presence, is never used outside of its truth.
Yet, more and more, I find myself in conversations where people want the image, the beauty, the visibility, but not the responsibility that protects it.
They say: “I trust you, but I don’t like contracts.”
And I answer: “If you trusted me, you’d read it.”
A contract is not a wall. It’s a bridge.
It’s how adults make freedom visible.
The Disrespect Hidden in Laziness
When someone refuses to read, it’s not a neutral act.
It’s a quiet form of disrespect.
Not toward me, but toward the work, the process, the time, and the invisible labor behind the image.
To not read is to say: my convenience matters more than your craft.
It’s to forget that behind every photograph there is preparation, structure, insurance, law, ethics, and risk, all invisible, all necessary.
The world wants authenticity, but it doesn’t want the discipline that sustains it.
They say “I want something real,” yet they treat real work as optional.
Protecting What Matters
So how do we protect both the photographer and the person portrayed?
By reintroducing something revolutionary: literacy of respect.
Before you sign, read.
Before you post, ask.
Before you question trust, understand the framework that exists to protect both sides.
The photographer doesn’t own your soul; he protects your representation.
The contract isn’t a cage; it’s a code of honor.
And if you ever meet an artist who gives you ten pages to read, be grateful.
He’s not hiding anything. He’s showing his ethics.
The Tragedy of Short Attention
We have mistaken speed for intelligence.
But an unread agreement is not modern, it’s careless.
Every unread word erodes the culture of professionalism we once took pride in.
Photography has always been a dialogue between trust and exposure.
But today, trust must begin with something simpler:
the will to read.
Final Thought
We don’t need fewer contracts.
We need more consciousness.
We don’t need shorter texts.
We need longer attention spans.
If you can spend two hours curating your digital image, you can spend ten minutes reading how it will be protected.
Respect is not a signature.
It’s the act of reading before signing.
MISA
