Is the obsession with analogue gearing an obstacle to art?

[Bobab]

Let me try to explain myself.

Analogue photography is slow, it is very slow (and expensive if not). I know to some extent that can be a good thing, as it forces one to slow down and think. However, I am starting to think that the amount of time spent on the peripherals of image taking (developing, printing, scanning) takes a lot of time and energy away from the bit which actually matters - the artistic aspect of the image making process. I understand that much can be done to manipulate and alter an image during the developing and printing process. But so much more can be done, and far more quickly, with the digital process. And in addition to that is the instant feedback, and the far better scope for experimentation.

I like shooting with analogue gear. Mainly because I like old mechanical objects. I don't know why, but I do. But I am starting to think that they hamper one's progress as as a photographer, let alone an "artist", which in my view, few people can ultimately become anyway (and I doubt I will ever get there myself).

The other issue is that, I am starting to think that using analogue gear when everyone else out there is using digital, is like taking a knife to a gun fight. They can take thousands and thousands of photos, experiment, think about what want to communicate with their image and create. While it takes me a good part of my weekend to shoot, develop and scan a couple of rolls of 35 mm. Am I every going to produce interesting photos, when I am spending half my brain power worrying about what developer to use, at what temperature and for how long to get the effect I want (or mostly, just not ruin the negative).

I have not been doing analogue for particularly long, but in the brief time I have been doing it, I have developed an uneasy feeling that this is not the best way if I really want to do something "creative" rather than just producing images which are poor knock offs of those which may have been ground breaking in the past. It really hit me when I watch an interview with Pedro Meyer on the "Art of Photography" youtube channel. I don't particularly like Meyer's photography, but I think I agree with what he says about art and photography.

PS: None of this has stopped me, as of this morning, acquiring my first LF camera. But I am a bit disheartened.

[Dan Fromm]

I take it that there are parts of the process that you don't appreciate or enjoy.

[Bobab]

I like the process. Far more than digital. Though I have to admit that developing can be tedious. As can dealing with all the chemicals and equipment needed to develop and print. My point was that while I enjoy the process of shooting analogue considerably more than I ever enjoyed digital, I think that it makes it harder for one to develop ones's unique vision and to produce true art.

[Nodda Duma]

I like the process. Far more than digital. Though I have to admit that developing can be tedious. As can dealing with all the chemicals and equipment needed to develop and print. My point was that while I enjoy the process of shooting analogue considerably more than I ever enjoyed digital, I think that it makes it harder for one to develop ones's unique vision and to produce true art.

If you are spending half your time thinking about developers and chemicals — as well as your comment about not having shot film for long —, then that indicates to me you are still on a learning curve and have not yet reached that first zen plateau where the tools you have at yiur disposal become an extension of yourself allowing you to focus on the art.

All artists go through this, even digital. Keep at it, learn your tools (the film, the camera, the chemicals). Try sticking to one set of tools — perhaps one general purpose developer to address your main stated concern, learn it well... like, using-it-for-years well. at some point that will “get out of the way” of your creative process and you will not worry about competing with digital.

We’ve all been there at some point and for our own reasons. All artists have, too. The oil painter must learn to use the brush and paint without thought.

Remember too: 100s of shots = a few good images. A roll of 35mm = a few good images. A roll of 120 = a few good images. An outing with a few Large format holders = A few good images at a resolution that will blow you away. Try them all, pick the process that you enjoy the most. Then there is a lifetime of alternative processes.

[Daniel Unkefer]

If you are spending half your time thinking about developers and chemicals — as well as your comment about not having shot film for long —, then that indicates to me you are still on a learning curve and have not yet reached that first zen plateau where the tools you have at yiur disposal become an extension of yourself allowing you to focus on the art.

All artists go through this, even digital. Keep at it, learn your tools (the film, the camera, the chemicals). Try sticking to one set of tools — perhaps one general purpose developer to address your main stated concern, learn it well... like, using-it-for-years well. at some point that will “get out of the way” of your creative process and you will not worry about competing with digital.

We’ve all been there at some point and for our own reasons. All artists have, too. The oil painter must learn to use the brush and paint without thought.

Remember too: 100s of shots = a few good images. A roll of 35mm = a few good images. A roll of 120 = a few good images. An outing with a few Large format holders = A few good images at a resolution that will blow you away. Try them all, pick the process that you enjoy the most. Then there is a lifetime of alternative processes.

I concur 100% with every part of Jason's quote above. If you want a few images that will blow you away large format will be a good vehicle for you. I'm making silver gelatin 4x5 contact prints and they are lovely to me and jewel-like. Then I scan the contact print

Garden of the Gods 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

4x5 Sinar Norma 90mm Sinar Super Angulon HP5 in PMK+ contact print on Promaster VC RC. My first attempt at split printing. Multigrade dev

[Andrew Plume]

If you are spending half your time thinking about developers and chemicals — as well as your comment about not having shot film for long —, then that indicates to me you are still on a learning curve and have not yet reached that first zen plateau where the tools you have at yiur disposal become an extension of yourself allowing you to focus on the art.

All artists go through this, even digital. Keep at it, learn your tools (the film, the camera, the chemicals). Try sticking to one set of tools — perhaps one general purpose developer to address your main stated concern, learn it well... like, using-it-for-years well. at some point that will “get out of the way” of your creative process and you will not worry about competing with digital.

We’ve all been there at some point and for our own reasons. All artists have, too. The oil painter must learn to use the brush and paint without thought.

Remember too: 100s of shots = a few good images. A roll of 35mm = a few good images. A roll of 120 = a few good images. An outing with a few Large format holders = A few good images at a resolution that will blow you away. Try them all, pick the process that you enjoy the most. Then there is a lifetime of alternative processes.

This is a really good post Jason, thx indeed

best

Andrew

[Lachlan 717]

I like the process. Far more than digital. Though I have to admit that developing can be tedious. As can dealing with all the chemicals and equipment needed to develop and print. My point was that while I enjoy the process of shooting analogue considerably more than I ever enjoyed digital, I think that it makes it harder for one to develop ones's unique vision and to produce true art.

Is that you again, Stone III?

[mdarnton]

Art comes from working within restrictions. I remember when cheap motors came out for 35mm cameras. I was a newspaper photog at the time. I'd go to an event and there'd be tons of amateurs shooting "spray and pray", just hold your finger down and hope for the best. I bet that for every single photo I shot they shot 200 worse ones, because I had to think and build within the restrictions that the equipment imposed, and they weren't thinking at all. Too many choices to handle isn't freedom.

[Bobab]

Art comes from working within restrictions. I remember when cheap motors came out for 35mm cameras. I was a newspaper photog at the time. I'd go to an event and there'd be tons of amateurs shooting "spray and pray", just hold your finger down and hope for the best. I bet that for every single photo I shot they shot 200 worse ones, because I had to think and build within the restrictions that the equipment imposed, and they weren't thinking at all. Too many choices to handle isn't freedom.

I am not sure your example really supports your proposition. Your example supports the notion that when you value each shot you take you will think about it more and so produce better photos. So art requires effort, it requires exertion. I absolutely agree with that. The limits of your medium do create obstacles, and the way you deal with these obstacles can often give rise to art because it becomes a mode of expression unique to the medium. However, a medium which poses fewer limitation does not prevent the production of art. In fact, in my view, it creates greater opportunity for art. If you can do more in a shorter period of time (and I don't consider mindlessly shooting frame after frame on a digital camera), then you can go deeper into the image making process and create things and find new ways of expression that were either not possible, or would have taken you 10 times longer on a medium that had greater limitations.

[Serge S]

Art comes from working within restrictions.

So true! Art is selectivity - and their are multiple ways to do that