Is Film Dead? Essays by Pro Photogs

[nksyoon]

Sportshooter.com has just published a series of short essays by photo journalists on the topic "Is Film Dead?".

Editor's note: With the advancements in digital technology the days of a news photographer heading out to cover an event with a "pocketful of Tri-X and a Nikkormat with a 24mm lens" are over. Or are they? The Sports Shooter Newsletter asked four photographers to address the question on whether film is still viable in this day and age of gig-a-bytes, pixels and Photoshop

Some interesting quotes:

"Are we not, as photographers, creative people? We photographers used to mock our friends who had boring, tedious jobs (read: attorneys) in cavernous office buildings. Suckers. But who's laughing now. Like some Dilbert strip, we now spend half our days discussing workflow issues. Workflow?!? Wow, how the mighty have fallen."

"What does film have to do with this? Simple: film, like wine, is an organic process. It reminds us of our past, it teaches us about our senses, and it makes us work just a little harder. It can be frail and it can be unforgiving. It reminds us that a photographer's place should always be behind a camera, not in front of a computer."

"I miss my Hasselblad lenses immensely. I would love to see Canon come out with a line of "premium lenses". No auto-focus, no zoom, just a really nice razor sharp fixed focal length lens in a few focal lengths...I'll still take my M-6 on vacation"

"There was something magical about the darkroom. It was artistic; a place where potential seemed limitless. The intimacy a photographer had with the work has, sadly, not been replaced in the digital realm. Digital post-production remains a clinical pursuit full of histograms and left-brained mumbo-jumbo. Efficient, but hardly satisfying."

"I will trust my history to film. I know I will be able to pass those slides along to our son someday and he will have the unique and distinct pleasure of seeing his life memorialized in tiny, sparkling tableaus, as I have."

The Essays:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1534
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1535
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1536
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1537

 

[photogdave]

AAAAHHHHHH!!!! 😀
Thank you for that.

 

[wtl]

No, film is not dead but the conversation is.

 

[ch1]

No, film is not dead but the conversation is.

Amen to that! :bang:

 

[TEZillman]

Nksyoon,

Thank you for posting this. I found the essays literate and interesting, much more so than most commentary on the subject found on the internet. While the subject has been discussed at length, it is not one that will go away soon.

 

[bmattock]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2065452,00.html

 

[JohnL]

Good to see you back, Bill

 

[ch1]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2065452,00.html

And so it starts all over again.

This article says nothing that hasn't already been discussed ad nauseum here already. It has no "new" information and seems simply to be posted as another provocation.

 

[nksyoon]

Well, I don't know what other people's motivations are, but I merely posted the Sportshooter links for people who might need some validation in the face of the incessant "is film dead" articles; that they might like to know that some professionals who shoot digital for their jobs prefer to shoot film for their personal projects, and that these professionals share the same preferences for film and the analogue process preferred by many members here.

 

[ch1]

Well, I don't know what other people's motivations are, but I merely posted the Sportshooter links for people who might need some validation in the face of the incessant "is film dead" articles; that they might like to know that some professionals who shoot digital for their jobs prefer to shoot film for their personal projects, and that these professionals share the same preferences for film and the analogue process preferred by many members here.

nksyoon,

Your intentions were "noble" and appreciated.

The post I "quoted" was not added in the with the same good intentions. It was a posting to a link of a current derivative "news" story that contained information which has previously been discussed here to death.

It's too bad we can't have positive news about a medium many of us enjoy without someone coming in and pissing all over the place!

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

In other news, Nietzsche is dead.

 

[Finder]

In other news, Nietzsche is dead.

But you can still read his work. 😀

 

[Finder]

BTW, whatever happened to the paperless office?

 

[aad]

As I read a recent USA Today story bemoaning the drop in digital camera sales, and the scramble to find the "next" thing, it occurred to me that though the film market has shrunk, it may well be the most profitable segment of the photo/imaging marketplace.

The same article also quoted the Kodak line that film will never go away.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

BTW, whatever happened to the paperless office?

Paper was declared dead at the office a long time ago, don't you remember, with the superpowers of computers? :angel: The paper industry has been chuckling ever since.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

But you can still read his work. 😀

Many thank Tod (some say it's Mort) for that. 😉

 

[Bertram2]

No, film is not dead but the conversation is.

So true ! And it's dead since quite a time ! 🙄

bertram