Is there a point in making prints anymore?

[Pickett Wilson]

I'm afraid in a lot of areas, the past is hobbling the future. Print magazines and newspapers, in the process of dying, are sucking resources away from the online versions that must eventually replace them. I'm afraid photography is in that same, unfortunate place. The longer we embrace the past, print and film photography which is rapidly going away, the more likely we are to find ourselves staring into the abyss and becoming irrelevant when that past suddenly disappears.

 

[ray*j*gun]

What are you going to hang on the wall or in a gallery, an SD card?

Amen!!!! I'm sure its all been said.

 

[semilog]

A majority of people play musical instruments these days as a 'creative outlet' to compensate for their day jobs, which are usually very rationalistic and devoid of feelings and emotions (check career thread statistics) and they're keen that the best way to go about playing musical instruments is to stop thinking, because that's what they do in their real jobs, they think too much. This phenomenon has created a sort of illusionary bubble where it really does not matter whats going, the theme is to lets just carry on like before and go through the same routines and follow the same procedures even if those are by now defunct and even what we're actually doing, playing musical instruments is rather questionable from a creative stand point because the only creative part of this so called creative process of playing musical instruments is the thought that its creative, which in fact its not. Sitting down at a piano in your living room or singing in a church choir is not the same as pouring down one's imagination on an original score or sitting in with Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk in 1962. No matter how one sugar coat it with being 'in the moment', melody, counterpoint and voicing whether acoustic/electric... This goes back to my assertion that there is less need and time to play music and one of the biggest reason for that is that its mostly stuff that's already been recorded anyway. When people stop thinking they simply recycle what they like and that is more apparent in music than any other medium. People simply pick up an instrument and play, or sing, because they have heard it before somewhere, there is no impetus to 'think' because then that would be like work and boring, so here we're awash with recycled songs of decent quality but nothing more and nothing less, a sort of mediocre stasis.

A mediocre stasis, indeed.

 

[PKR]

A majority of people play musical instruments these days as a 'creative outlet' to compensate for their day jobs, which are usually very rationalistic and devoid of feelings and emotions (check career thread statistics) and they're keen that the best way to go about playing musical instruments is to stop thinking, because that's what they do in their real jobs, they think too much. This phenomenon has created a sort of illusionary bubble where it really does not matter whats going, the theme is to lets just carry on like before and go through the same routines and follow the same procedures even if those are by now defunct and even what we're actually doing, playing musical instruments is rather questionable from a creative stand point because the only creative part of this so called creative process of playing musical instruments is the thought that its creative, which in fact its not. Sitting down at a piano in your living room or singing in a church choir is not the same as pouring down one's imagination on an original score or sitting in with Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk in 1962. No matter how one sugar coat it with being 'in the moment', melody, counterpoint and voicing whether acoustic/electric... This goes back to my assertion that there is less need and time to play music and one of the biggest reason for that is that its mostly stuff that's already been recorded anyway. When people stop thinking they simply recycle what they like and that is more apparent in music than any other medium. People simply pick up an instrument and play, or sing, because they have heard it before somewhere, there is no impetus to 'think' because then that would be like work and boring, so here we're awash with recycled songs of decent quality but nothing more and nothing less, a sort of mediocre stasis.

A mediocre stasis, indeed.

I didn't clip any of the above.. as it's worth reading twice!

To be clear: A mediocre stasis, indeed.


pkr

 

[FrankS]

Thank you, semilog.

GSNfan, I don't know what to say. Why do you do photography if it's all beeen done, why still use film (GSN), why choose a RF forum, why assume you know the motives of others, why the broad brush, why, why?

 

[GSNfan]

Thank you, semilog.

GSNfan, I don't know what to say. Why do you do photography if it's all beeen done, why still use film (GSN), why choose a RF forum, why, why?

When you don't know what to say, at least don't misconstrue my points and don't try to lead it to a different direction.

Photography is not done, its the mediocre stuff by lazy that is done. There is hope and there are many in this forum alone who gives me hope.

 

[FrankS]

Please make me aware of how I have misconstrued your points.

 

[GSNfan]

Just as Avatar is far greater film than The Maltese Falcon.

The term false dilemma is thrown around here quite often but mostly mistakenly, this is one glaring example of a false dilemma that should be taken as an example and here way.

Why not The Matrix, The Blade Runner or Terminator 2, why Avatar?

Try to make some of the ipod generation watch The Maltese Falcon instead of The Matrix, or even Avatar...

But then again, The Maltese Falcon and The Avatar are not 'the only two' movies in the world, is it? lol

 

[GSNfan]

Please make me aware of how I have misconstrued your points.

I cannot report what I posted, and as I said this thread is done. I have to go and shoot some pictures.

 

[Roger Hicks]

A majority of people take photos these days as a 'creative outlet' to compensate for their day jobs.

Yes, but it is part of my day job, and I firmly believe that a print, in the right place, is worth a million times as much as an image on the internet. Just as an internet image, in the right place, is worth a million times as much as a print.

Cheers,

R.

 

[GSNfan]

Yes, but it is part of my day job, and I firmly believe that a print, in the right place, is worth a million times as much as an image on the internet. Just as an internet image, in the right place, is worth a million times as much as a print.

Cheers,

R.

I fully respect what you feel and I cannot change your view or anyone else.

People forget that this is simply a theoretical discussion and what they do in the end of the day is their own calling, no one can influence them.

cheers,

 

[emraphoto]

I enjoy the process of making a wet print. My darkroom time is sacred 'private' time and if I can share the results of my efforts with others who appreciate holding a photographic print - then that's a big bonus.

A few prints I recently made for a friend who's return home to Toronto as a cordwainer (shoe maker) after apprenticing with a master cordwainer in Italy.

Shot with an M3/50cronv5 on Neopan400 @iso800, printed on Ilford MultigradeFB Warmtone (MGW.24K) double weight paper, developed in Ilford Multigrade Paper Developer.

this leaves me wishing i could see the real thing. lovely.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I fully respect what you feel and I cannot change your view or anyone else.

People forget that this is simply a theoretical discussion and what they do in the end of the day is their own calling, no one can influence them. cheers,

I sincerely hope so, but when I was younger, I was far too willing to be influenced by the opinions of older, 'wiser' photographers.

As I've grown older, I've realized more and more that 'older and 'wiser' are some way from synonyms, even if they are even further from antonyms. As Frances and I have said in a number of books:

"If someone reads this book; says "I could do better than that"; and then goes out and does better, we have succeeded. It's a poor teacher who doesn't want his pupils to do better than he has."

Cheers,

R.

 

[igi]

There will always be a point in something as amoral and will-driven action such as printing.

I'm not against printing, that would be stupid and funny at the same time. I merely asked if it was necessary to print if no one asked for prints.

If no one, including myself, asked for prints, why would I even print? At the very least, I'll print for myself.

Thus, the whole point is the will to print.

 

[shadowfox]

Just beautiful!
Why do we still print indeed...

 

[Glass Addict]

I like theories, but only those that are based on some factual data. There were so many baseless assumptions made in the argument that in the end, it just comes down to whatever makes you happy. That's about the only conclusion I can make out of this 6 page thread.

 

[jsrockit]

People simply pick up an instrument and play, or sing, because they have heard it before somewhere, there is no impetus to 'think' because then that would be like work and boring, so here we're awash with recycled songs of decent quality but nothing more and nothing less, a sort of mediocre stasis.

A mediocre stasis, indeed.

Maybe in pop music... but there is definetely music out there that isn't the same old same old. Perhaps the individuals you are talking about simply enjoy playing what they've already heard. Not everyone is a song writer... some people just enjoy playing. It's all about fun, just like photography should be.

 

[tedwhite]

I make prints so I can hang them on the wall. Occasionally someone likes one well enough to buy it. In 1977 I photographed the dining room of the Copper Queen Hotel with a Kowa 6 with a mildly wide angle lens using Plus X film. Recently I found the negative, made a 16X20 print and took it to the hotel. Showed it to the new owners, who liked it and ordered three more prints at $100 each. I like playing with photography, and when someone gives me money for playing, well, life is good.

 

[semilog]

Maybe in pop music... but there is definetely music out there that isn't the same old same old. Perhaps the individuals you are talking about simply enjoy playing what they've already heard. Not everyone is a song writer... some people just enjoy playing. It's all about fun, just like photography should be.

I was being facetious, gently mocking another person's post (#126) about photography.

 

[nikon_sam]

Is there a point in making prints...???

It would have been pretty silly of me to give my wife two empty picture frames for Mother's Day...
The prints of our two college age kids made all the difference...