The Soul of the Camera

Authenticity

THE DANGER OF CATCHPHRASES and words of the moment is that they fall on our ears so often that we stop noticing them; they become meaningless. As I write this, the word authenticity is taking its turn at having the significance beaten out of it by hipsters and marketers looking for a new way to connect to a cynical public. It’s the new way of saying “it’s the real deal” without sounding so slick. The problem is that soon the word authentic will sound slick to our ears and might just come to mean its opposite. But the idea of authenticity is still important; we can pursue that without abusing the word itself.

The word in question comes from words meaning “being one’s self,” sharing the same roots as author and authority, all of which ...