We live in the best of times

[Kirk Gittings]

Photographically speaking that is. Between the used market and new stuff, between digital and film or hybrid.......We have never had better films, papers, cameras, digital options, vintage options, printing options, publishing venues, exhibition venues, information sharing venues.

This...........right now........

This

is the golden age of photography.

[Brian Sims]

I agree.

Until XX years from now when printer inks radiate their own light, and cameras also capture the fragrance of the scene, and the world's collection of images are searchable and connected by GIS code.

I think it will be interesting to look back on this time, let's say 20 years from now, and judge whether our abilities to see the world and interpret and communicate it's wonder were worthy of this golden age.

[paulr]

some of the most interesting times, at least.

maybe the best if you're flexible enough to jump to new materials every time one you're used to gets New and Improved or tossed into the dustbin of history ... a daily occurence whether you're using digital materials or traditional ones. it's volatile out there!

[Michael Alpert]

Kirk,

Yes, I agree. But why are we not more appreciative and happy?

I am writing the introduction to a book involving a photographer whose best work was in the 1930s through the 1950s. His struggles involving materials, equipment, money, acceptance of photography as an artform, etc. seemed never to end. Only basic cheerfulness kept him afloat.

Today, if we can somehow maintain a sense of optimism about the world and the possibility of meaning within it, we are living in a golden age. At least for photographers in developed countries. So I share your thought, although I am aware (as I am sure you also are aware) that there are millions of people who move through life with us who cannot afford to buy an aspirin when they have a toothache.

[John Z.]

It may be the case, but the options for film and paper in 11x14, my preference, are becoming more scarce. If we can still get Kodak to make a special run of TMY 400 every few years, I will be happy.
It is true that the ability to reach a world audience via the internet has never been greater.

[davidb]

Most definitely interesting times.

[Marko]

some of the most interesting times, at least.

maybe the best if you're flexible enough to jump to new materials every time one you're used to gets New and Improved or tossed into the dustbin of history ... a daily occurence whether you're using digital materials or traditional ones. it's volatile out there!

We are witnessing - no, we are a part of a transition from industrial to informaton age. There were only a handful of such transitions over the last few thousand years and we should feel fortunate to live in and be part of one.

The main characteristic of the information age is content - information - by itself a very immaterial concept. Another characteristic is the transfer of information and its speed. Both of those characteristics are limited by the current technology, hence the drive for constant improvement.

Physcial information containers such as paper or film simply cannot sustain the amount of information required, much less the transfer speed. They are also introducing the medium distortion and therefore represent the blind alley, the end of the road for that particular information stream. Finally, they make the transfer of information they contain extremely slow by their very nature.

That is why traditional materials are becoming niche - or rather butique - medium and the mainstream is moving toward all-electronic pathways. Rather like the quill and the typewriter of old vs. the computer or the saddle-making vs. an airplane.

In other words, materials and crafts tied to them are becoming increasingly irrelevant in relation to the information itself. The Content is becoming free as it never was before and that can only be a good thing for Photography itself.

Yes, I would say these really are the best of times and not just because we get to live in them.

[Bruce Watson]

This...........right now........

This

is the golden age of photography.

Absolutely. I couldn't be more happy or more amazed at the stupendous quality of 400PortraNC in 5x4 sheets. It nearly defies imagination.

So too are films like 400Tmax, 320Tri-x, 160PortraVC/NC, Pro160C/S, Acros, FP4+, etc., etc., etc.

So too are developers like XTOL, Pyrocat-HD, etc., etc., etc.

Way back in the mid-1970s when I started down this photography path I could never have imagined films with so little graininess, such high sharpness, such large dynamic range.

I surely couldn't have imagined glass like the 110mm SS-XL, or cameras like the Toho FC-45X that I hike around with.

It is a fine photographic world we live in, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to participate in it such as I can.

[Michael Alpert]

We are witnessing - no, we are a part of a transition from industrial to informaton age. . . . Physcial information containers such as paper or film simply cannot sustain the amount of information required, much less the transfer speed. They are also introducing the medium distortion and therefore represent the blind alley. . . .

That is why traditional materials are becoming niche - or rather butique - medium and the mainstream is moving toward all-electronic pathways. Rather like the quill and the typewriter of old vs. the computer or the saddle-making vs. an airplane.

In other words, materials and crafts tied to them are becoming increasingly irrelevant in relation to the information itself. The Content is becoming free as it never was before and that can only be a good thing for Photography itself.

I didn't know all this. Please say more. What is "butique" anyway? From a horse's point of view, is a saddle-maker butique? From a reader's point of view (and I mean a reader of something more complex than comics) is paper butique? What do you actually do with your photographs? Does what you do ever involve paper?

[Michael Graves]

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.