The only thing I would disagree with is the position that you don't care how other photographers work. Personally I have learned a great deal from finding out how others deal with a particular problem or challenge. That doesn't mean I am going to change the way I do the same thing. It doesn't mean I will even agree with what they are doing or trying to do. I may not even like their work, but there is something to be learned. At the very least it makes me think. When the mind is in gear, the work usually improves in some way.
Darin Heinz <spacecoastphoto@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi everyone. After days of internal debate, I ultimately decided to respond
to this...
This (and the related thread) is largely academic. Personally, I prefer
using film. That said, it doesn't make one shred of difference what you (the
reader) or anyone else uses, on my work or yours. There are blatantly
obvious pros and cons to each. It takes about as much time for me to print a
good photograph as it takes to sit in front of a computer and adjust areas
of pixels. The environment gets screwed up by chemicals used in developing,
just as much as it gets screwed up by the production and disposal of digital
paraphernalia (computer components, batteries, etc). I could go on with
examples, but I won't. Time spent arguing about such inconsequential matters
is time lost from creating images.
When photography was first introduced, alarmists of the time declared that
it was the end of painting. 169 years later, I know dozens of people who
make their living (some doing *very* well, actually) as fine-art painters. I
expect that, likewise, film will continue to be around past the day I draw
my final breath. And that should have no impact whatsoever on the
digital-using folks. Film's existence isn't a threat, and certainly
shouldn't be perceived as such; it is merely an alternative. By the same
token, the proliferation of digital photography has no effect on those who
still use film.
Eugene Atget, hailed by many as the most influential photographer in
history, preferred an albumen process that was all but extinct when his work
flourished. Black and white photographs are prevalent today, fifty years
after color film became widely available (again, wrongly predicted to be the
death blow to B/W photography). Why should the digital revolution kill film?
It seems to me that the only real difference is in the consumer market. Your
average Joe created mediocre-at-best film images. Now your average Joe
creates mediocre-at-best digital images.
What's really going to twist peoples' noodles is when the two forms merge,
when it is easier to scan film, when it is easier to make chemical prints
from digital media. What will people argue about then?
I suppose it is an inate manifestation of human nature to be drawn into one
camp or the other, and be so passionate about that mindset that it falls
just short of being militantly opposed to everything else. Remember the good
old days when you were a member of either the Nikon team or the Canon
team--or simply an outcast?
I have gone both routes. I like the way I can shoot a thousand frames on an
8-GB card, and I also like the way I am forced to be selective when I'm
shooting 24. I like being able to upload images to a website the day they
were shot, and I also like knowing that nobody can download my best
photographs and repost them to the Usenet quagmire. When it comes down to
it, I particularly enjoy the "feel" of a film-originated image and the
satisfaction that comes from producing an illogical image completely in the
camera (I dislike post-exposure manipulation--no burning or dodging for
me!). When the dust settles, 95% of me is a film guy. That's just what I
choose to do, that's where my tastes are. But I am just as likely as the
next person to give a digital photographer a hug.Depending upon who you ask, are CDs better than LPs? I've heard
plenty from both sides.
I'll continue to do what I do, and happily at that. It works for me, and
that's all that counts. Truth be told, I really don't give a half a crap
about how the next photographer operates. After all, It has absolutely no
bearing on my creative pursuits.
Darin
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