jsrockit
Moderator
No, it is not valid, because the art world is almost irrelevant for the survival or revival of film.
Artists just don't buy enough film or paper to keep the film / paper lines running.
The enthusiast / (serious) amateur market keeps the lines running.
And at those the 'film is dead' campaign was adressed.
And it has been very successfully, millions of photographers followed it.
I'm a nobody and I just do photography because I enjoy it. I think I fit in the serious amateur market category. I switched to digital because it allowed me to do the type of photography I want to do better than with film. I went to art school with a focus on photography when we only used film and printed in darkrooms (digital was less than a MP at the consumer level by the time I graduated). I've done B&W, C-Prints, Cibachromes, Van Dyke Brown, and Cyanotypes from multiple formats. I've used both film and digital extensively and I do not feel some anti-film consortium made me switch to digital. Many of the people I've photographed with here in NYC used / use film. None of them cried / cry over this supposed campaign. Then again, they are secure people who don't care what others think about how they make their photography.