Giving up photography

Just as a goof I bought a new ribbon for my 1965 Herme's 2000 manual portable typewriter and took it over to Starbucks one evening, sat down out on the patio and started typing. It amazed me just how many people there are these days who've NEVER seen a manual typewriter, or even an electric for that matter. Another time I showed up with a 4x5 Anniversary Speed Graphic complete with side mount flash with a 7 inch reflector. No film holders or flash bulbs, but it sure atracted attention sitting there on the table next to my coffee cup.

I'm not about to give up B&W film photography but about the only use the typewriter gets these days is doing preprinted forms and lables, and it makes a great prop, as does the Speed Graphic.
 
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I thnk the mention of HCB is not relevant to anything practical or positive in the context of this discussion. I have seen a lot of his great images, but not read any of his books, and saw one of his latest TV interviews due to the mention of it here at RFF, and....

....well, I do not think his images are less good than anyone else's opinion here. But the man I saw at that interview was an arrogant self inflated elitist minded one, speaking about Picasso and other painters as if they were his equals, comfortably proclaiming being an Anarquist and blah blah blah.

This is not the type of artist filled with humility, in view of his deep understanding of life and Arts. This is not the type of artist telling you "it is not just me, it is the depht of Art which I am just a servant of" - but on the contrary. At that interview he was just a man trying to sell more pics.

Therefore I will continue enjoying his great images, but not pick him as the first example on how to approach the place of Art in your life, nor the place of your life in the world of Art. This is not what I want for myself at his age, if I happen to be successfull or not.

On the contrary, in case the future has for me any success I wish myself to remain cool (cold) minded and humble. And in case not, I wish myself to be proud of my efforts, regardless of the results. Because it is the efforts what will enrich my spirit, and because success and recognition are forcefully mixed with the Way to Canossa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa.

Because what we are dealing here is about decisions in life, decisions in the context of each one surroundings, decisions which define us, not about big shots paying rent at the towers of success.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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I met a retired pro who recenty had his knee fused so it will no longer bend. He refuses to quit.

PS. Get tested for strep before surgery to avoid this. There is $1,500,000 in that leg and it does not work and never will. No not a typo, one million, 500 thou. And six months in a nursing home + 5 surgerys.
 
ruben said:
I thnk the mention of HCB is not relevant to anything practical or positive in the context of this discussion. I have seen a lot of his great images, but not read any of his books, and saw one of his latest TV interviews due to the mention of it here at RFF, and....

....well, I do not think his images are less good than anyone else's opinion here. But the man I saw at that interview was an arrogant self inflated elitist minded one, speaking about Picasso and other painters as if they were his equals, comfortably proclaiming being an Anarquist and blah blah blah.

This is not the type of artist filled with humility, in view of his deep understanding of life and Arts. This is not the type of artist telling you "it is not just me, it is the depht of Art which I am just a servant of" - but on the contrary. At that interview he was just a man trying to sell more pics.

Therefore I will continue enjoying his great images, but not pick him as the first example on how to approach the place of Art in your life, nor the place of your life in the world of Art. This is not what I want for myself at his age, if I happen to be successfull or not.

On the contrary, in case the future has for me any success I wish myself to remain cool (cold) minded and humble. And in case not, I wish myself to be proud of my efforts, regardless of the results. Because it is the efforts what will enrich my spirit, and because success and recognition are forcefully mixed with the Way to Canossa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa.

Because what we are dealing here is about decisions in life, decisions in the context of each one surroundings, decisions which define us, not about big shots paying rent at the towers of success.

Cheers,
Ruben
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you may have missed something , or a bad translation, hcb come from a rich family, but is not arrogant etc 😉
 
Selamat petang! I hope Frances is doing better, Roger.

I shoot 100% film and I like to think what I do approaches "art," when I'm at my best. I almost never shoot to document. Painting has pulled me away from photography in the past, and now I want to do lithographic printmaking. I love photography, but within the overarching practice of making art. So if film becomes too troublesome to bother with eventually, then I'll let it go and pursue the older graphic arts.
 
Al Kaplan said:
Just as a goof I bought a new ribbon for my 1965 Herme's 2000 manual portable typewriter and took it over to Starbucks one evening, sat down out on the patio and started typing. It amazed me just how many people there are these days who've NEVER seen a manual typewriter, or even an electric for that matter. Another time I showed up with a 4x5 Anniversary Speed Graphic complete with side mount flash with a 7 inch reflector. No film holders or flash bulbs, but it sure atracted attention sitting there on the table next to my coffee cup.

I'm not about to give up B&W film photography but about the only use the typewriter gets these days is doing preprinted forms and lables, and it makes a great prop, as does the Speed Graphic.
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Al, do a search on the phrase "typecasting" and ignore the results relating to Hollywood. You'll find a handful of blog sites dedicated to writers who write by manual typewriter, then scan and post their results as image files.

I still haven't gone out to the local coffee shop with (one of ) my manual portable(s), but am constantly tempted to. A manual typewriter in good working order is just as functional as a manual rangefinder in good working order. Last summer, on vacation at the beach in Oceanside, Ca, I sat in a beach chair and typed on my Royal Mercury. Loads of fun, and the looks one receives from the younger generations are priceless.

~Joe
 
When I first got married in 1964 my bride had spent a year in Geneva, Switzerland staying with her aunt and uncle (he was a diplomat) and doing her senior year in high school. She insisted that we buy the Hermes, which at $119.95 was about four times what any other portable sold for. About fifteen years later the keys were getting sticky and I told a friend of mine that had a typewriter repair shop that I was going to bring it over. He told me that "cleaning and lubricating" a typewriter was one of the world's biggest money making scams. He told me to drench everything with WD-40, work all the keys, and repeat the following day. Then over the next couple of days clean up the dripping mess with paper towels. I've had to do it once more since then, and I've probably used half a dozen ribbons over the years. I wish that "Just drench it in WD-40" worked on Leicas.

A few years ago, after a hurricane, most of Miami-Dade County was without power for as much as two weeks. When Starbucks got back on the grid I was one popular guy when I brought over half a dozen power strips from my lighting kit (I left the strobes and umbrellas home). For the next few days they must have tripled their coffee sales as everybody hung around, recharged their cell phones, and tapped the keys on their laptops.
 
NickTrop said:
For many purists, it might be when film is no longer available. I have floated in and out of this hobby throughout my life. I don't know why. It has been consistent for the last 5-6 years, though. If you do this for a living, like anything else you do for money and not for fun, you might just burn out to it and never want to take a picture again for the rest of your life - understandable. Or - creative burn out, like musicians, authors, and filmmakers. You just run out of fresh ideas and just repeat yourself...
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I'd give it up if there was no film. Or maybe I'd make my own dry or wet plates. There are millions with digital cameras, any one of which could take my place.
 
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When I shot for a living, my personal shooting suffered. Having to take pictures of large industrial operations with flash, large format etc is not "photography" - it is illustrations or technical information on film. After 4-5 days of 16 hour work - the last thing you wanted to do was to go out and "take pictures". The industrial work is interesting from a technical point - it is problem solving and technical know-how - but fun. No way. Standing ankle deep in black sludge, consisting mostly of hydrochloric acid and having to use a scuba tank with a breather - it is not fun.
When i stopped doing that kind of work, photography became fun again. I still am fascinated by the chemistry of film and paper and keep experimenting.
These days i load up cameras with different films, soup them in various concoctions and look at the result. Occasionally I get a good shot, but thats not why i do it.
The good thing is that film, at least black/white is having a bit of a come back and its demise is premature. All right, I do stock up (latest count 1100-1200 rolls in the fridge and freezer and another 5-6000 ft of XX incoming). That should keep me going for another year or two.
If I had to stop shooting - I could keep myself busy for many years editing what's in my files anyway. I never could stop being interested in photography. Web sites like Flickr and RFf keeps the interest up.
Sometimes I go to Flickr, pick one of the big sites (Black and White Photography, M2 Nirvana or whatever) and put it on "slideshow" mode and sit back, watching images go by. Not all are good, but you get into an almost Zen like trance watching it.
 
feenej said:
I'd give it up if there was no film. Or maybe I'd make my own dry or wet plates. There are millions with digital cameras, any one of which could take my place.
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From what I have seen, Foma and Neobrom in the Czech Republic, just stop coating glass plates about 15 years ago. ;-)

A friend uses the available emulsions to re-coat glass plates to shoot in his field cameras.

Regards, John
 
I could probably find myself giving up if I were obliged to use only a tiny digital compact without a viewfinder, lacking any form of manual control and shooting Jpegs only. I would feel so uninvolved at that point that photography would cease to involve me.

Ted.
 
I've had dry spells lasting several years, but I always come back to photography. There were periods when I had nothing to say photographically. There were other times when I was busy with other forms of self-expression, like restoring my old house.

But to give it up? For good? Not unless I physically could not do it anymore. Or maybe if I suffred such a great loss that life lost all meaning. But then, photography might be the one thing I could still find meaning in.

Roger, what is, Tashi delek? Is it like, A la Prochain? Arriva Derchi?

A la Prochain,

Rob
 
Death but I am trying to work out how to smuggle a Leica on me to the other side 😉

Seriously though, I really do mean death or possibly going blind but even then I'd probably still carry on doing it!

If they stop making film in the future I'll grudgingly move over to digital but I don't plan on doing the latter, whilst I can still buy film, shoot film, process film and print film in the darkroom -- I'm sticking with it. That said, I'd sooner switch to digital than stop my photography.

Let's face it though, film isn't going away just yet.
 
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