NickTrop said:
Film - black and white shooters who develop and print in particular, are folks who like to roast the beans themselves, grind them, don't mind the extra work, labor of love. Appreciate the subtle differences between the various types of "beans" (film/developer combinations...)
Digital are people who WANT IT NOW! RIGHT NOW! Boil water, throw in a teaspoon of instant, quick stir, kill the taste with sweeteners and half and half, and try to convince themselves (and others) that it tastes the same as the real stuff. And it's sooooo easy, who wants to do all that work? Who wants to get their hands dirty, do all that cleaning up?
They turn their noses up at a fine cup of Expresso with a twist - ewwww! Bitter, like digital shooters say about "grain"...
Digital is a loaf of Wonderbread... characterless, tasteless, bland but easy. It's instant coffee, it's a Betty Crocker cake from a mix. Quick and easy and as satisfying as all things "quick and easy".
Oh, I don't like that. I'm a film photographer myself, but I think this kind of polemics is just too condescending and simple.
In a similar vein, a digital photographer might say a lot of very condescending things about film that are probably even true when applied to some film photographers. Polemics work both ways - just an exercise in thinking about photography, not directed at anyone in particular, let's try it out:
"Digital is for those for whom a camera is an instrument to an artistic end, the artistic merits of which outweigh the lodestone of tradition that artistic communities tend to place around the neck of the artists. Digital is for those for whom a timekeeper is an instrument for keeping time (and not to enjoy the ticking of), a brush is an instrument for producing paintings (not for wasting their time discussing the relative merits of otter vs. horse hair), and a pen is an instrument for producing text (not producing script script). Digital is for those who think that a work should live on its own merits, not on the merits of the elitism and outdatedness of its means of production. And digital is for those who buy and use devices for the sake of the results that they produce with them, instead of fondling them and pretending to care for the results these devices might be capable of in the hand of a master.
Film is for those who think that the labour of love is all about the labour, to whom an achievement is not an achievement unless it has been achieved through blood, sweat and tears and who forget over all the blood, sweat and tears that it's the achievement that counts. Film is for those who think a steam engine is a quaint thing of the past which is vaguely more in touch with nature's inner being, and not a milestone of progress and an amazing technology which results in revolutionarily productive and creative exchanges of people, goods and ideas. Film photography is for those who, in the face of their own mediocrity and the realisation that their work has little speaking for it, try to excel in the quaintness of their processes and then call it "authenticity". Film is for those who think that expression is sufficient and should be possible only in the ways of the Grand Old Masters, just like the vast majority of 19th century painters produced excellently executed, but bland paintings in the styles developed in their academies for centuries, while only a small minority had the greatness of mind to embrace the new modes of artistic expression that rapidly became possible through technological innovation and the release of the creative minds from the shackles of the past, and just like a judge in Riyadh will assert that all the tools that the human mind needs to form a judgement have been developed to perfection eight hundred years ago, while everything new is an innovation that distorts the essence of the immortal principles of truth and beauty.
They turn their noses at a photographer who looks at a display on the back of their camera, as if this simple act already told everything about the person: "Bah, behold his inability for creativity, his lack of empathy, his mindless subscription to the progress meme." Film shooters pretend to be deep, artistic and understanding, but if you want to see their true face, start a discussion about digital photography with them, and you will have the revealing experience of your life."
Philipp :angel:
