StillKicking
Established
"She'll have fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the Leica away!"
She'll have to find it first.. Daddy is keeping a close eye on his Leica..
NaChase
Well-known
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
Sure every thing has been done before; it just hasn't been done by me.
Gregoryniss
Well-known
I'm 20, in college, and have been shooting film since I was 17, and got my first leica at 18. I've noticed a lot more people my age shooting film now, which I think is awesome. However, the one thing I don't like is the notion that if you shoot film your photos will be better, and you'll automatically be a better photographer by shooting film. An underexposed photo of a chair, is still an underexposed photo of a chair on film. Besides that, I'm all for people joining the film bandwagon, except for the fact that it's driving up prices, but a little personal sacrifice for the great good of film is acceptable to me.
jan normandale
Film is the other way
I remember the movie titled "A River Runs Through It" which was affectionately called "The Movie". It created a whole generation of fly fishers. They moved across the landscape, fishing, buying, writing, tying, exploring and then got new interests.
I think 'film" photography will have a similar trajectory.
I think 'film" photography will have a similar trajectory.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
So you're saying we don't want a bubble that bursts ... more a persistant swelling that won't go away!
Michael I.
Well-known
i get a lot of people in their late teens-early twenties asking for advice which film cameras to buy, they get nikon f2's , medium format, polaroids, the works.
I just think it is ridiculous to make a distinction between digital and film in regard to "coolness" or "real" when it is all photography.
Field
Well-known
What you got to remember is that a lot of them are trying to be trendy like the people who picked up the cameras out of interest. We have the trendsters vs. real interest. Trendsters often have more money and make the market more difficult for the people that originally got interested.
I like the preservation of film but I am annoyed. The truth is the digital crowd annoys me because they take pictures of EVERYTHING. It just gets spent out and stupid after awhile, and there is an incredible amount of throw away digitals purchased. The school here has upped the anti for purchasing 5D'IIs and stuff but still the average person owns a hunk of crap with a fixed lens.
There is a big difference between taking pictures at an employee BBQ hosted by the company, and 1960's anti-war protests or civil rights movements. I grant that the level of things can not be that way everywhere that people live but still people use to be way more out going as far as protests etc even locally. The youth are way more content in well established countries.
Field
Well-known
In a way. The problem is so much has happened at such a fast rate that original ideas are difficult to come up with. You have to spend half your time searching to check if someone has already done whatever, if you want to do something original.
The constraint really is that society at large on a global level is pretty well unchanged. Things happen but how we view life has not really seen any radical changes lately. We have just kind of consolidated everything. The US being a "melting pot" has extensively "melted" everything together. China town might look different - because it makes money - but all the kids have their Ipods and skinny jeans anyway.
In order to create an original body of work you have to explore an idea rather, not just bringing something into existence that is not quiet the same as something else. That is a true challenge these days at the rate ideas have been shared and exercised with the Internet etc.
Before digital, this was all done with film and ****ty film cameras. Times have not changed...just the tools have.
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Well, you can sit around thinking everything's been done or just go out and do it anyway. What is the worst thing that can happen... you end up with a bunch of cliches and some time wasted. I can think of worse things to do with one's time. Plus, history has shown us that sometimes someone comes along and breathes new life into the same old idea.
I'd much rather spend my time making the photos I want to make (even if they are not original) then mining for an original idea without making photos. By doing the former, you may eventually get to the latter.
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J. Borger
Well-known
With film it is/was too expensive and time consuming to snap 1000 pictures on a saturday afternoon firing away at EVERYTHING "to see what you got" and delete 9999 pictures afterwards
With film it is/was too expensive and time consuming to snap 1000 pictures on a saturday afternoon firing away at EVERYTHING "to see what you got" and delete 9999 pictures afterwards
True, but haven't you ever sat through a boring ass slide show at a Uncle's house that didn't know how to edit his slides? There were way too many pics in those too.
Plus, really... what is so wrong with making 1,000 photos on Saturday if that is what someone wants to do? ****, especially if they only keep one... it sounds like good editing to me.
On a Saturday, I might make 200 photos at most with a digital camera. That's 5 and half rolls of film 36 exp film. Seems the same to me.
cjbecker
Established
Im 20, started with film, have shot film until now. Shot a little digi in there, but now a 100% medium format film shooter. I just shot a wedding in all film.
GSNfan
Well-known
So, according to your nihilistic view, we're simply engaged in a perpetual fruitless labour?
But don't you feel you're threading on dangerous ground because this sort of pessimistic argument can easily turn against life itself, because if everything has been exhausted and pointless then what's the point in bothering with life?
MC JC86
Negative Nancy.
Apparently photographers are just as bad as bike messengers and skateboarders when it comes to classifying others as "posers". I'm just happy to meet fellow travelers and know that in theory both mediums can coexist.
zauhar
Veteran
My teenage daughter immediately took an interest in film after I went back to it last year. She borrows my Canon RF, and has been taking some excellent photos with it. Now I am learning how to develop and print, and maybe she will investigate that too. Should I complain that she shares an interest with her old man?
We shouldn't make snarky comments about young people who try to reproduce some "cool" film effect they saw somewhere, or who follow the pack and buy a cheap plastic camera to play with. I saw the plastic cameras at Urban Outfitters too, and was tempted to buy one just for fun. Because they look like fun.
Young people have to find their way, just like the rest of us had to.
Randy
We shouldn't make snarky comments about young people who try to reproduce some "cool" film effect they saw somewhere, or who follow the pack and buy a cheap plastic camera to play with. I saw the plastic cameras at Urban Outfitters too, and was tempted to buy one just for fun. Because they look like fun.
Young people have to find their way, just like the rest of us had to.
Randy
I can understand being a poser in skateboarding or photography... and by that I mean pretend to make photos or skate, but never actually do it.
How and why would someone "pose" as a bike messenger? Isn't that more of a job than anything else (despite the subculture)?
zauhar
Veteran
You pose as a bike messenger by acquiring a fixed-gear bike that you can't properly ride. You can spot these kids immediately because they are usually pushing the bike - and when not pushing they are at the point of colliding with someone. ;-)
rayfoxlee
Raymondo
The trend was confirmed by the owner of Arundel Photgraphica here in West Sussex, England. He told me that business is getting busier, with more young people investigating film. He said that Holgas and some other plastic cameras also are in high demand, although he sells the real metal! His shop is stuffed full of cameras, lenses and accessories from the film era - a real Aladdin's cave.
While I was there, a woman pushed her husband through the door, smacked what looked like £60 on the counter and said 'please sell my husband a camera - he won't do it on his own, so I will!' The owner told me that that was a 'first' in 25 years of running the business!
Ray
While I was there, a woman pushed her husband through the door, smacked what looked like £60 on the counter and said 'please sell my husband a camera - he won't do it on his own, so I will!' The owner told me that that was a 'first' in 25 years of running the business!
Ray