Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Mar 13, 2004, at 2:33 PM, Ted Grant wrote: > Adam Bridge offered: > Subject: Re: [Leica] epson digital RF report pages > > >> There are some really interesting comments over at Digital Journalist > about this >> issue and some others relevent to our discussions. >> >> About film and digital and it's meaning for photojournalists: >> >> "We're Screwed" By James Colburn: >> <http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0403/colburn.html> >> >> ... > Thanks Adam for the heads-up. > > Hey folks this is an interesting read worth a look as it might give > some > concern about jumping into the deep waters of all digital and > forgetting > film. There is no question that the current rise of digital imaging is going to change "photography" in ways perhaps not yet imagined. Photojournalism seems an ideal application for digital cameras that can instantly transmit images across continents and publish via the Web to a worldwide audience. Except that it is so easy to alter the images that will we believe what we see. Indeed as books are increasingly published via the web, there is also the ability to "go back and rewrite history" ala George Orwell (or Yevgeny Zamyatin). "Truth" becomes, well a point of ones perspective. At the moment digital video is not *so* easy to alter, and with HDTV just around the corner we will be seeing 24fps multiMB video streams. The so-called "decisive moment" will be captured with freeze frame and the buttons on your VCR. Have you used a DV camera? Indeed they are the size and weight of a Leica M, and athough the still frame image quality is not something one would want to enlarge and place on the wall, the still photo has already been replaced with the flat panel LCD. Indeed the quality of HDTV on my 1950x1600 LCD is stunning. On the other hand traditional photo techniques are certain to live on with the new rise of photography as an art form (perhaps just as oil painting became "relegated" to art rather than a recording medium for portraits at the turn of the last century). Collectors already place a significant premium on "hand made" techniques, such as painting itself, but increasingly including alt-photo processes such as platinum, gum, carbon and now "silver gelatin". Indeed the market for 8x10 *commercial* photography i.e. catalogs has essentially vanished (and *who cares* if the Speigel catalog is no longer shot in 8x10 :-) but in fact ultralarge format e.g. 11x14, 8x20, 16x20 etc. has seen a significant resurgence in recent years as an "art form" -- and prices for original contact printed platinum photographs supports this. As a (modest) collector I'd not pay nearly as much for a "giclee" (gag!) as for a traditional medium. Indeed I'd pay less for a giclee than for a traditional lithographic repro. On the other hand this new digital imaging art form may find its own place over time just as traditional photography found its own place (in the art world) aside traditional art forms (painting). At the moment the alt-photo world is becoming more and more interesting. In my mind the future of traditional photographic techniques is in the fine art world -- but perhaps the values of traditional journalism might be saved by a traditional movement i.e. traditional photography, traditional writing and traditional printing. Heck, the printed book market is *thriving* despite the Web. Jonathan - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html