Elliott Erwitt: Digital Photography makes you sloppy :)

Words to live by. "I don't mean to insult the chimpanzees. They might be quite good photographers."
 
Oh, he's so sweet... Honestly I think anyone with an opinion being really different from his, for sure has not lived film photography deeply enough... Ralph Gibson says it loud too: "Digital photography is not photography"... I think it's like being an athlete and running a marathon... You can do it by car too, but should both things share the same name, even if driving requires some visual attention and physical effort too?

Cheers,

Juan
 
I think he hit the nail on the head with this comment. Digital is very help when you start photography as it gives you immediate feedback and helps experimenting. But once you passed your first 10.000 shots I think it is better to leave that track. An analog camera might be the better tool to develop further.

Regards
Steve
 
All depends entirely on the individual and possibly the camera and mind set behind it as well.

I know with a Nikon D70 I was maybe sloppy at times and took many, many shots but when using my old M8 not so because the whole approach to using a manual focus RF camera is generally more considered and used it like a film camera i.e. Not taking countless shots just because the digital film as it were is free.

I do prefer film though but surely that is a personal preference and has nothing whatsoever to do with good, bad or sloppy photographs. It's the nut behind the viewfinder end of the day pure & simple. :)
 
Q. Mr. Erwitt. do you think automobiles have corrupted the timeless institution of human transport by carts and so on?

Erwitt: Indeed. Automobiles have made transport too easy.
 
Have to agree with Elliott, need to fight the sloppy tendency with digital.

Composition: not so much, it is very similar between film and digital. The viewfinder is essentially the same and framing is approached similarly (at least for me).

Exposure: yes, easy to get sloppy and chimp w/ the added benefit of highlight clipping and a nice histogram. Need to use these features as a "check" and not as a feedback loop to iterate exposure.

Can one be disciplined? Yes.
Is it hard to be disciplined? Very.

His comments on survival of the fittest for street images was interesting, with B&W typically being film and thus a more considered image; therefore, on average the b&w 'survive' to a greater degree.
 
Everything is sloppier than daguerrotypes. We should have stopped there.

Photography has only gotten easier and sloppier (and more interesting) since day one. Like somebody else posted you could make the same exact argument for 35mm.

For someone like Ralph Gibson or Eliott Erwitt to say that the new, easy way to photography is bad is ridiculous when they were using the easiest way to photograph in their time, 35mm.
 
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I love how people on a forum put down a highly succesful photographer as nonsense and essentially a crank. Maybe people could learn sometime from him...
 
ebino said:
Q. Mr. Erwitt. do you think automobiles have corrupted the timeless institution of human transport by carts and so on?

Erwitt: Indeed. Automobiles have made transport too easy.
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this has nothing to the with art and photography. In one of his interviews he comments on manuplation of the photos digitally. "Go do painting instead"
 
JayGannon said:
I love how people on a forum put down a highly succesful photographer as nonsense and essentially a crank. Maybe people could learn sometime from him...
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I enjoy his photography. Doesn't mean I have to agree with is philosphy. You can turn out good photographs with any camera.
 
Nikon Bob said:
+1

Digital photography does not make you sloppy, you make yourself sloppy if you let yourself.

Bob
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Yep - agreed.... I went through the "sloppy" phase when I first started with digital.

Initially, the ability to shoot 2000 images haphazardly of the same exact thing was such a revelation.... then the realization that I had 1999 crap images in my hard drive set in...
 
LeicaFoReVer said:
I believe using digital photography for art, is like using a robotic hand for painting :)
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Believe what you want but I think your are just fooling yourself in this case. This is another one of those unending arguments that have been around since the beginnings of photography every time there was a change to the equipment and/or process used. Everyone has their own perception of the state of things regardless of what any guru has to say. Everyone is free to create in their own way and none are right or wrong/better or worse.

Bob
 
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