We live in the best of times

[Gordon Moat]

Some might state: it was the best of times, and the worst of times. Sure, there is DVD Audio and 5-1 sound to replace stereo CDs, but then there is MP3. Then you can get HD-TV, while web video is becoming ever more popular. In photography, you can buy nearly anything of high quality, yet the camera phone is the highest volume seller.

So the highs and the lows of the markets are well addressed. I have seen some comments from museum directors deriding the cost cutting in printing, implying too much emphasis in that direction over quality considerations.

Then there is micro stock in the photography market, a development after Getty Images and Corbis bought out 80% of the stock agencies. On-demand printing and books for wedding photographers are more accessible. There are more magazines, though many are paying less, and some not at all. Advertising budgets are finally on the rise again, though the cost of attracting that market has increased.

The internet, and EBAY, have provided access to gear that was difficult to find only ten years ago. Unfortunately that has also hurt many local stores. Shipping services and choices have improved some aspects of this, though there are fewer vendors of purely photographic gear. There are also fewer labs, yet the few that stay do seem to be doing a better job, and can provide some quite good quality printing.

As with anything, one must accept the good with the bad. I am very happy with the Large Format gear I now own, and some of the changes have been to my benefit. My camera comes from China (Shen-Hao) through Badger Graphic Sales, one lens from MPEX, a few items from KEH, film through B&H Photo, another lens and some film holders off EBAY, and some nice accessory bags bought locally through Nelson's Photo Supply, etc. In some ways it was all too easy.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[Ole Tjugen]

I agree that films are better, the chemistry is better and that our equipment is easier to use. But I don't know about paper. What do we have that equals Kodak Elite or Azo? Ilfobrome? And where or where is my beloved Agfa Brovira. We have some excellent papers, but we're amazily lacking in truly great papers.

I don't know about you, but I use Ilfobrom Galerie. It may be difficult to get hold of, but it's still made. And it's as least as good as it has ever been!

When I found out the price for new Slavich photographic plates I was shocked. But then I looked up the prices in 1930, corrected for inflation et cetera, and discovered that plates have never been as cheap as now in "real money".

The same is true for lenses: One lens I bought a few years ago cost ne exactly the same sum as when it was new in 1912: £12.-. But in 1912 that was a small fortune, about the equivalent of £500 today (it's not only inflation, you have to correct for average wages as well and how much of those were left after spending the absolute minimum necessary for survival).

[Steven Barall]

This absolutely is the golden age of photography. Never before has photography been so democratic and accessible. When is was like twelve years old, thirty four years ago, and I wanted an 8x10 color print made my father had to take the negative to the camera store and they had to send it off to Kodak and a week or so later I got my print. What a thrill that was, to see my photo enlarged all the way to a giant 8x10. I can still remember it all like it was yesterday and I still have that print.

Now I sit here with my film and scanner and HP 9180 printer and I can make 13x19 inch color prints that are of much higher quality than any color prints ever made in any darkroom and for very little money also. And then there is the digital camera stuff which is an even more streamlined process. The point is that we all do this and so do kids. Kids today can use photography as a tool to an extent that I could never have dreamed of when I was twelve years old.

The question is whether the preciousness of photography in the olden days was good for the Art and Artists or whether this new unfettered access is better. There is something to be said for toil. Only time will tell I guess.

[Kirk Gittings]

Take my friend Michael Mutmanski for instance. He does everything from 7x17, contact prints, digital prints and digital contact prints to using a Canon 5D for commercial work. He pushes the boundaries more than I do, but

If tomorrow you decide to do a daguerreotype or a project emulating Carleton Watkins or Thomas Struth's new digital work, all of that technology is virtually at your fingertips. It is solely a question of your financial resources and your initiative. When I got started in the late 60's we were far, far more limited both in terms of technical resources and aesthetic opportunities. At art schools it was traditional b&w silver prints period.

[Michael Graves]

I agree completely. It seems everytime I get comfortable with a great paper, it goes away.

My point exactly. I fell in love with Elite. Got to where I knew it well.

It went away.

Got to know Brovira.

It went away.

Then Zone VI (the real Zone VI, not the stuff they're selling today) bit the big one.

[Oren Grad]

In other words, materials and crafts tied to them are becoming increasingly irrelevant in relation to the information itself.

Reminds me of the paperless office.

Seriously: at least for this small group of outliers who are deeply into craft, the new technology broadens the range of tools for moving a picture from initial capture to its ultimate physical embodiment. But a non-electronic physical embodiment is still the goal.

[Jim Chinn]

It really is great times to shoot film in any format, color or B&W. I remember 20 years ago lusting after an 8x10 sinar or arca swiss that cost a few thousands of dollars. Now they go on ebay in the hundreds. I recently bought an RB6x7 medium format body from an estate sale new in box for $200. New what did they sell for? $1500/$1700?

A dozen years ago IIRC there was only one source for ULF film and that was rebranded Ilford. you might have been able to get TriX in 11x14 retail but otherwise I think anything Kodak was special ordered. Now we sitll have Ilford, but also TMY and TriX with special orders as well as Adox/Efke.

There are still very good papers around and hopefully we will see the revival of AGFA film and paper next year as well as the long awaited Lodima Fine Art silver chloride contact printing paper.

Besides regular silver gelatin paper and film, there has been a tremendous resurgence in alternative methods like Plt/pld, wet plate collodion and other hand coated emulsion techniques. The ability to learn these and find materials would be impossible for most without the internet to relay information.

[Marko]

Reminds me of the paperless office.

Seriously: at least for this small group of outliers who are deeply into craft, the new technology broadens the range of tools for moving a picture from initial capture to its ultimate physical embodiment. But a non-electronic physical embodiment is still the goal.

Or perhaps something like Apple Newton...

Both were the concepts that came well before their time when neither technology nor the people were ready and so became the laughing stock.

Well, iPod and iPhone are here and nobody's laughing. As for the office, just think of how much less paper is circulating around these days and how many more emails and attachments. Stuff like spreadsheets, Word documents, screenshots... Not to mention photographs.

It is not an event, it is a trend. I am not saying that paper is going to disappear, I'm saying that it is ultimately going to become a specialized niche because it cannot provide the throughput needed to sustain the increasing flow of information.

Just look at the kids and see how much paper they use - for them, it has already become an oddity. They practically live online. You don't need to guess - just look at them and you'll know what lies ahead.

[Scott Davis]

The "paperless office" is actually a fraudulent sham. There's actually MORE paper being used now than was in the past before the "paperless" office. People print emails because they don't trust the medium. They also print PDFs. I can tell you stories about when I was working at the Pentagon, the staffers would produce these 200+ slide PowerPoint briefings, and then PRINT 20 copies in COLOR for distribution at the meeting. Kinda defeats the purpose.

[Oren Grad]

Just look at the kids and see how much paper they use - for them, it has already become an oddity. They practically live online. You don't need to guess - just look at them and you'll know what lies ahead.

And of course, one can make pictures with the goal of displaying them online or on a personal gadget. But if, in doing so, one labors over color spaces and gamma and profiles and browsers and so on, out of concern about how the pictures will look to the viewer, it means that craft hasn't been entirely superseded by "pure" information.

Or, rather, the medium is inseparably part of the message, even if it is a new-fangled medium.