And if I do miss something, it might be the creative "explosion" I experienced in my teen years. That of course happened with film. It was an intense experience.
I have mixed feelings about that...I owned a photography studio for over twelve years (1975-88) and I did my own black and white processing and printing...I spent hundreds of hours in the darkroom...and many of them were good hours (creative hours)...There was feeling of jubilation when that print you had spent so much time on came out of the drier and you examined it and then laid it down and admired what you had accomplished...
Today...I sit at my laptop and press a button and and within seconds my printer which is not connected to my laptop fires out a print on matt or glossy paper...Clean and sharp and I hold it up and say..."Damn,this so easy!"
No...I don't miss going in the darkroom anymore...but those old prints seem to mean more to me than the ones I print now...
Some people will always slam the next new thing. Roald Dahl in his autobiography talked about how much better photography was in the pre-film days when you used...I can't remember what it was, glass plates or something? Before the days of rolls of film anyway. He said that photography was more of an art, and that later it became something any joe blow could do. Then you got people born later who grew up with film, and slammed digital when it came along. Although I can see film having its place today, but digital is so much easier. If I was a hardcore photographer I'd still probably use film for nostalgia reasons, because I grew up with it, but people who grow up with digital won't probably feel that way. A few geeks, maybe, like the people who buy vinyl records or brittle 78s. That's not a slam on geeks, btw. I have many geeky interests myself.
A lot of us are stepping way back. See: http://www.alternativephotography.com I am concentrating on photography using pinhole cameras and coating my own paper that I expose with a contact frame when the sun shines. Long live the geeks.
Speaking of pin hole cameras...I remember the time I built my first one...
It was in the 70's...I was asked to exhibit some of my b/w prints at the USC art department along with three other photographers ...One of whom was the professor of photography at an out of state university and a pinhole photographer...His prints which were long and narrow looked like panoramas of woodland scenes and were very well done...But he acted very haughty when I asked him to explain how he made his camera and how he used it..."You would think I asked him how to make an atom bomb"...He was not going to revel his secrets to me (or anyone for that matter...)
Soooooo...that very night I went home (my darkroom was in one of my bedrooms then)and I made my own....From a metal bulk film canister and a plastic 35 mm container and some Panatomic 35 mm film...The next day...It took me three tries but I got it to work...
11 comments:
Did you make that up, or find it somewhere? Anyway, it's excellent!
When I was a kid, we had an outdoor toilet, and nobody missed it when the indoor one arrived.
I haven't seen it anywhere.
Somebody said they were under the impression that all veteran photographers were nostalgic for film, and I just wanted to give another impression. :-)
It was different when 3 megapixels were maximum for an affordable camera.
The simple truth is: that which you talk about, you have some attachment to. Regardless if you frame your sentence as a negation.
So, Eo, tell us what is it about film that makes you proclaim its death with such an alarming regularity? :-)
Well, somebody mentioned it.
And if I do miss something, it might be the creative "explosion" I experienced in my teen years. That of course happened with film. It was an intense experience.
I have mixed feelings about that...I owned a photography studio for over twelve years (1975-88) and I did my own black and white processing and printing...I spent hundreds of hours in the darkroom...and many of them were good hours (creative hours)...There was feeling of jubilation when that print you had spent so much time on came out of the drier and you examined it and then laid it down and admired what you had accomplished...
Today...I sit at my laptop and press a button and and within seconds my printer which is not connected to my laptop fires out a print on matt or glossy paper...Clean and sharp and I hold it up and say..."Damn,this so easy!"
No...I don't miss going in the darkroom anymore...but those old prints seem to mean more to me than the ones I print now...
I can well understand that.
And of course I put the issue a little on the sharp side for impact. :-)
Some people will always slam the next new thing. Roald Dahl in his autobiography talked about how much better photography was in the pre-film days when you used...I can't remember what it was, glass plates or something? Before the days of rolls of film anyway. He said that photography was more of an art, and that later it became something any joe blow could do. Then you got people born later who grew up with film, and slammed digital when it came along. Although I can see film having its place today, but digital is so much easier. If I was a hardcore photographer I'd still probably use film for nostalgia reasons, because I grew up with it, but people who grow up with digital won't probably feel that way. A few geeks, maybe, like the people who buy vinyl records or brittle 78s. That's not a slam on geeks, btw. I have many geeky interests myself.
Yep, *any* radical idea has resistance, almost no matter how bad or good it is.
A lot of us are stepping way back. See: http://www.alternativephotography.com
I am concentrating on photography using pinhole cameras and coating my own paper that I expose with a contact frame when the sun shines.
Long live the geeks.
It's good that there are people keeping the old ways alive.
Speaking of pin hole cameras...I remember the time I built my first one...
It was in the 70's...I was asked to exhibit some of my b/w prints at the USC art department along with three other photographers ...One of whom was the professor of photography at an out of state university and a pinhole photographer...His prints which were long and narrow looked like panoramas of woodland scenes and were very well done...But he acted very haughty when I asked him to explain how he made his camera and how he used it..."You would think I asked him how to make an atom bomb"...He was not going to revel his secrets to me (or anyone for that matter...)
Soooooo...that very night I went home (my darkroom was in one of my bedrooms then)and I made my own....From a metal bulk film canister and a plastic 35 mm container and some Panatomic 35 mm film...The next day...It took me three tries but I got it to work...
Post a Comment