Basic change in photography

[JimL]

Not bad, 32 messages before the trolling starts, discounting that one fibble previous attempt...

Hey, I resemble that remark...!

I always thought that the term avant-garde referred to those doing what is new and at the forefront of whatever field they're in... thus my little joke.

I don't agree that the concepts behind negative>print image-making have "suddenly become a completely meaningless way of thinking" - otherwise why would Photoshop have burn and dodge tools, masks, a crop tool, and so on...? I wouldn't be surprised if the terminology for these functions sticks around for quite a long time, even if future generations aren't aware of their origins. It's not too common to set metal type these days, but the term "leading" is used in every graphic layout program. Artists don't work in a vacuum - every college teaches art history. Nevertheless, it'll be interesting to see what the field of photography looks like in 20-30 years...

[Marko]

Jim, you probably meant "resent", but it wasn't you I was talking about.

[artedetimo]

I am 29, so I am not sure if I still count as young, but I am in a photo program with young people, so I'll share what I have learned.

First of all I have to say I love traditional but I also do digital. I see each of my cameras as a tool; good at different things. I have 2 35mms, one auto everything (the C brand) that is a little large, and a manual (the P brand) that just about fits in my pocket. I have an ( M brand ) Medium format, and a (W brand ) large format (for those interested in the brands; you know who you are). I also have a camera phone, a point and shoot digi and a DSLR. I use all of them fairly regularly and have a complete dry darkroom and wet darkroom that I know how to use pretty well and use both regularly. I use a pro lab for chromes, Epson at school for prints, Costco and Snap for hybrid prints and have used c-print color processors. I love the BW wet darkroom. Now I say all this not to prove something about myself, but only as an example of what "young" people know how to do. I am not alone in my endeavors by a long shot either; just about everyone in my photo program has the same knowledge (though maybe not the equipment due to finances). We do BW, color, digital, in all formats, alternative process, multi media, pinhole, Polaroid field, commercial, fine art, you name it. In fact the alternative class is probably the most popular this semester.

Now maybe since I am studying photo you can expect that I would learn about all these things, but I would say that the people who are investing in learning the field as a profession/carear/way of life have always done this. And since I have a degree in another field I can say that this sort of study happens in other fields as well. Maybe as time goes on traditionial photo will become "advanced" knowledge instead of the begining; my school is trending this way, but it is part of photography and always will, there is no changing that. Its a mark of progress when there is more to learn as time goes on, wouldn't you say?

I think the very notion of digital replacing film is a symptom of novelty, and the rigidness of modern "boomer" thought. But truth be told, digital has been ADDED to film, so now we have more options and routes to what we want to do. If the photographer wants a sterile picture, they can shot digi, throw it into PS and make it perfectly sterile with no noise, or grain or texture or sense of humanity, or whatever that person's notion of perfect is. Or the photographer may want to keep the hand of the artist in the work and go the route of producing their own glass plates and printing with alternative processes on cardboard with dust stuck to everything. Or maybe they want something in between, and do alternative printing with digital negatives, or shoot film in a pinhole and scan it in for a PS once over. The options are endless, and it is a result of the ADDITION of more tools, not a shift from one to the other.

What a "good" photograph is has finally become fully subjective. The technology isn't limiting the photographer with the rules of the negative and the print anymore. That is both a great development in the medium and also the greatest challenge we face, because now we have to define "good" for ourselves first before we got out and create... we have to think, learn and understand what the choices are before we can make that decision.

This is the best time to be a photographer so far ( as the huge upsurge in interest both in the Art market and in the practice proves), and the future will only get better.