Henri Cartier-Bresson
Developing digital technology - a lament for the passing of film photography
07/05/08 07:19 Filed in: Photography
I am an exponent and great fan of technology progress. The pursuit of technological development is what preoccupies me in most of my working life. But every so often the development of so-called new technologies seems to take a backward step and offer worse performance than the technology it succeeded. Most of this is obvious: I have an iPod that I love! It keeps me company on the many boat and plane journeys I undertake. iTunes makes free downloads that help me in learning French. For a small portable device the sound quality is pretty good! But to compare it with my ‘Cambridge Audio’ hi-fi system would be a nonsense. The quality of my hi-fi system really is like having an orchestra or a band playing in the front room. The iPod acoustic experience comes nowhere close. It’s with real sadness that I read that new CD recordings by famous artists have bombed because of the download market.
But that was not my main purpose in writing. Another casualty of the digital age has been photographic film. One can still buy film, of course. But companies who were once big names, like Kodak, Canon and Nikon, have already made their exodus from film photography. There is a big part of me that feels that a lot of photography skill died with the demise of film. Who needs to understand photographic principles when one can hold one’s mobile phone in the air, point and click! It makes me smile when I read of Nokia telephones sporting Carl Zeiss lenses like Hasselblad cameras. I suspect it matters little to the Nokia user who probably doesn’t know the difference between an f-stop and a bus stop!
I’m not sure if I’m being an elitist or a Luddite but I do mourn that passing of film photography. The modern high-convenience, low-cost digital camera requires little by way of skill to take photographs. I’m not sure what or how much the modern digital camera user would understand about aperture, depth of field, speeds, light, and colour. It’s almost as if the art and science of photography have been forgotten in an age of digital convenience that is often as appealing as fast food. I have stood in queues in English chemist shops behind people who have frequently collected their party pictures of beheaded bodies and limbless beings. I’m joking although I do wonder if photography as a skill or an art form is going the same way as painting that preceded it. People still visit art galleries in thousands to see the work of the masters, I doubt if master photographers will have the same appeal in time.
Some photographers still take wonderful photographs. One can see them in magazines and newspapers daily. But the digital revolution has brought about a vast polarisation not only in skill but also in the economic accessibility and affordability of top-class digital equipment. I once owned a Mamiya medium-format camera. As I thought about writing this piece I thought I’d check out the price of its modern digital equivalent. It was £13,500! (USD $26,000, Euros 16,875) I could never entertain spending that sort of money on a camera.
If you would like to see photography at its best, take a look at www.magnumphotos.com, an organisation that comprises some of the world’s best photographers as its members. I’ll finish with some fine examples of film photography; first, the work of landscape photographer – Ansel Adams then the work of the wonderful French photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson. Cartier Bresson says more about human behaviour in his images than one could say in ten thousand words, and he does so with enormous wit, humour and charm.
Ansel Adams
All images Copyright © Ansel Adams. Publishing Rights Trust/CORBIS
Henri Cartier-Bresson
All images Copyright © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
And here’s some of my own stuff, all taken on film - No digital manipulation, photoshop or retouching here!
But that was not my main purpose in writing. Another casualty of the digital age has been photographic film. One can still buy film, of course. But companies who were once big names, like Kodak, Canon and Nikon, have already made their exodus from film photography. There is a big part of me that feels that a lot of photography skill died with the demise of film. Who needs to understand photographic principles when one can hold one’s mobile phone in the air, point and click! It makes me smile when I read of Nokia telephones sporting Carl Zeiss lenses like Hasselblad cameras. I suspect it matters little to the Nokia user who probably doesn’t know the difference between an f-stop and a bus stop!
I’m not sure if I’m being an elitist or a Luddite but I do mourn that passing of film photography. The modern high-convenience, low-cost digital camera requires little by way of skill to take photographs. I’m not sure what or how much the modern digital camera user would understand about aperture, depth of field, speeds, light, and colour. It’s almost as if the art and science of photography have been forgotten in an age of digital convenience that is often as appealing as fast food. I have stood in queues in English chemist shops behind people who have frequently collected their party pictures of beheaded bodies and limbless beings. I’m joking although I do wonder if photography as a skill or an art form is going the same way as painting that preceded it. People still visit art galleries in thousands to see the work of the masters, I doubt if master photographers will have the same appeal in time.
Some photographers still take wonderful photographs. One can see them in magazines and newspapers daily. But the digital revolution has brought about a vast polarisation not only in skill but also in the economic accessibility and affordability of top-class digital equipment. I once owned a Mamiya medium-format camera. As I thought about writing this piece I thought I’d check out the price of its modern digital equivalent. It was £13,500! (USD $26,000, Euros 16,875) I could never entertain spending that sort of money on a camera.
If you would like to see photography at its best, take a look at www.magnumphotos.com, an organisation that comprises some of the world’s best photographers as its members. I’ll finish with some fine examples of film photography; first, the work of landscape photographer – Ansel Adams then the work of the wonderful French photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson. Cartier Bresson says more about human behaviour in his images than one could say in ten thousand words, and he does so with enormous wit, humour and charm.
Ansel Adams
All images Copyright © Ansel Adams. Publishing Rights Trust/CORBIS
Henri Cartier-Bresson
All images Copyright © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
And here’s some of my own stuff, all taken on film - No digital manipulation, photoshop or retouching here!
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