In search of perfection

[x-ray]

I'm not a newcomer to photography, I've been around the block more than a few times. I've been pulling B&W negs from my archive recently and scanning at high res to make 24" prints for a client. I guess I've looked through 10,000 images and scanned about 400. I find myself at a crossroad now. I've been involved with photography since 1953 when I Mage my first images and been a full time professional photographer since1968.

Scanning and closely examining these images made me aware that my best images are often not my best images technically. The images weren't always tack sharp and didn't always have great tonality but the stood out from the other thousands as Bering something special.

I'm at a crossroad now. My entire career has demanded perfection to satisfy clients. I worked at achieving perfection so much I think a lot of my more recent work has become sterile and lacks emotion or at least the depth and emotion of my earlier work.

I believe te search for the perfect lens and ultra clean digital files has contributed to this. I feel digital is simply too clean and lenses too perfect for my style. The sou has technically been removed from my work.

What I'm doing is retiring from my commercial work to extend and promote my art and documentary work. I'm returning to film from digital for most of this and selling my M9 and current glass and my Hasselblad digital and returning to more vintage glass and film. I'm seeking the imperfect world I knew in the 60's and trying to regain my soul. I want to shed the shackles of pixel peeping and get back to real grain and grit.

Have you had such thoughts?

 

[Sparrow]

... competence is a good goal I've always thought ... perfection sounds a bit too religious to me

 

[x-ray]

Perfection is or was a way of life in the commercial world. Competition for big accounts with big budgets was fierce. When you have a $20,000 to $100,000 budget for a job clients demand perfection and won't accept excuses.

 

[Timmyjoe]

Who cares?

I agree with Stewart. You said you want "to extend and promote my art and documentary work". I promise you, striving for perfection will kill your art and documentary work.

Getting some old "good enough" equipment from the 60's and 70's and getting back to telling stories with your images, I think sounds like a good idea.

Best,
-Tim

 

[x-ray]

My x-ray art has the right balance between the technical and the art. It's a very technique driven art form. I'm in 9 very good galleries and I want to expand that. My documentary work has been where I want to take it back to I want the rawness and grit I had years ago. I can find it again I'm sure.

Honestly I'm more comfortable shooting film. It's like an old pair of shoes. It's just comfortable.

An example of what technical expectations have done to me, my wife gave me a Holga a few years ago. The first thing I did was tape up the light leaks and figure out how to make the lens sharper and figure exposure and adjust with ND filters. I did this then I realized I had just sterized the camera. I took the imperfections away as much as I could and destroyed te art. Let's say my wife who's a painter is counseling me. I'm in artistic rehab now. I'm learning to accept imperfections and enjoy the beauty of the flaws.

 

[mfogiel]

I think that even in the film days, commercial work was very demanding technically. I remember seeing my father fight with his Linhof and lighting to get the perfect product shots for a catalogue. Nowadays, with digital, things moved apart even further. Just loosen up and start using your other half of the brain. Learn from your wife. What is important, is to have the drive, and with all the accumulated experience, you won't need to go through lots of spurious images, because I'm sure you did that many years ago. Look for things that move you, and that can be universal. All human condition is out there to explore, as it evolves. Good luck - I enjoy your images.

 

[danielsterno]

regarding your personal observation, I get it and the more advanced digital (most new advancements of course are digital) get, the more "perfect" for a lack of any other description or sterile, the more I personally am interested in images otherwise and find them more interesting…. Good luck with your self re-evauation. Daniel.

 

[aizan]

i think people generally have a distaste for digital since that's the most common medium of photography these days.

are there any photographers working with digital whose photos have a "soulful" look to them?

 

[daveleo]

"Perfection", in any profession, is a cruel myth.
I'm a retired engineer (BIG famous company) and we were driven relentlessly to demand ourselves to have a "Passion for Excellence". If that phrase didn't show up in your annual performance appraisal, you had a problem.

Happily I lived long enough to retire and do my own things my own ways.

My advice? .... grab your soul and run with it and don't look back.


PS.... "digital" has nothing to do with this topic.

 

[helen.HH]

'Follow your Bliss'
Certainly In the pursuit of your 'Art' you no longer have to slavishly adhere to corporate demands... Jolly Good !

As for Digital being too clean, thats always been my only Complaint about that medium..

as for trying to Achieve Perfection: Nothing is Perfect , Beauty lies in Imperfection
and thats where Film rules... The Beauty of the way it renders Light & Shadows


I Adore your Film work
Though I am not sure if You have posted much Digital here on RFf so I may not be too familiar with it.
Knowing your Eye & Hand I'm sure its exceedingly Grand

Best of Luck !

 

[gb hill]

i think people generally have a distaste for digital since that's the most common medium of photography these days.

are there any photographers working with digital whose photos have a "soulful" look to them?

Ralph Gibson comes to mind. Didn't he say the Leica Monochrome gives him the same kind of images he got using film?

 

[daveleo]

......

are there any photographers working with digital whose photos have a "soulful" look to them?

How many millions and millions of film images are there that don't have a "soulful look" ?? I've got a file cabinet filled with them !!

Let's not do another film v digital thing. This topic is driven by external (marketplace) demands versus internal (artistic) passions.

 

[x-ray]

Thanks very much. The motivation never went away.

Were moving across the country. I've been in the same place for 63 years and I need a new environment. After 63 years everything is too familiar. I need a new sunrise and new people. Time to explore new photographic worlds. Shoot subjects that I've not done before or haven't done in 40 years.

 

[danielsterno]

'Follow your Bliss'
Certainly In the pursuit of your 'Art' you no longer have to slavishly adhere to corporate demands... Jolly Good !

As for Digital being too clean, thats always been my only Complaint about that medium..

as for trying to Achieve Perfection: Nothing is Perfect , Beauty lies in Imperfection
and thats where Film rules... The Beauty of the way it renders Light & Shadows


I Adore your Film work
Though I am not sure if You have posted much Digital here on RFf so I may not be too familiar with it.
Knowing your Eye & Hand I'm sure its exceedingly Grand

Best of Luck !

Helen- so very well said.

 

[aizan]

How many millions and millions of film images are there that don't have a "soulful look" ?? I've got a file cabinet filled with them !!

Let's not do another film v digital thing. This topic is driven by external (marketplace) demands versus internal (artistic) passions.

i agree. i don't think film vs. digital is all that relevant to the issue.

 

[x-ray]

Digital can have soul but it's not the right medium for my work.

I'm glad everyone enjoys my work. I'm planning on posting more soon.

 

[danielsterno]

i agree. i don't think film vs. digital is all that relevant to the issue.

+1. In reference to my comment, its not at all a film vs digital. its content and style/execution etc…..

 

[x-ray]

I totally agree.

 

[rivercityrocker]

I found that switching from my DSLRs to the M9 did the trick for me especially using older lenses with it.

For me at least, the I found that the relative point and shoot nature of DSLRs was killing the artistic side of my images and using the same perfect lenses, accurate AF and ultra-clean high ISO images started making my images look more like everyone else's regardless of subject matter.

I don't think using film is necessarily the key to adding "soul" to your images.

 

[thegman]

I don't buy into one type of photography having 'soul' and the other not. I also think that film is capable of technical perfection in the same way digital is, especially if you're using medium format or bigger.

But it either works for you, or it does not. I wish I liked digital, no dust, no scanning, light and weatherproof cameras, excellent. But I don't and I can't make myself prefer digital to film, either digital is what you want to use, or film is, or both, and we often don't get to make a choice based on logic or reason.