Would Winogrand be shooting digital if he were alive today?

kingqueenknave said:
Just curious to read what people think? I'll go out on a limb and say maybe.
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Wow, putting your head way above the parapet there... Risky statement, that "maybe" ;)

Anyway, I'm sure he would. No better way of shooting lots and lots of shots. He would have probably left his estate a few hundred hard drives full of unopened RAW files.
 
My first thought was, yes, of course he would, given how prolific he was and how much film he went through. But the more I think about it, I'm not so sure. Digital has a lot of good things going for it (from what I hear), but one of them is not the way it renders b&w, and while GW did shoot in color at different points in his career, he mostly shot b&w. If he were still around today, I'm going to say he'd still be shoot Tri-X 400 with an M.
 
kingqueenknave said:
Just curious to read what people think? I'll go out on a limb and say maybe.
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Of course, no doubts. Cartier to. They were not quite full craftsmen, they were leaving the processing of their materials to others. Not, that they didn't know, how, just they sucked at it so badly. Thus digi would be for them a gift from the heaven.
 
Digital certainly would fit with his approach and it's easy to see him being all over it.
Possible reasons he might have stuck with film...
1. Not wanting to learn a new process after decades of tr-x.
2. He was said to have been somewhat superstitious, so I could see him possibly having some distrust of things digital.
 
If he was alive today... he'd be 84 years old. Since he appeared to use the same camera for the bulk of his known work, I doubt he'd bother going digital. He would've been in his 70s when everyone else was going digital.

I have to say no.
 
Yes. Along with Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter. Gary would have several terabytes of memory cards waiting to be "developed".

Wayne
 
PKR said:
Both Winogrand and HCB were often not very close to being on the money when it came to good exposure. B+W film is much more forgiving of improper exposure. I can't imagine them chimping.
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Is not the task of the computer inside the digital camera to remove the problem of exposure ?
I maybe skewed a bit the question for myself, I imagined them having digi technology in their days. They both shoot with Leicas and TriX, the best technology of the time. Today's digital Leica would suits them perfectly. They were not romantic lovers of film, they were professionals bent on fame and money. They were shooting about 2-3 thousand frames per week to pick 3-4 meaningful images. Digital technology would free them from a lot of hassle.
 
I read Winogrand's work suffered once he got a winder. He probably wouldn't be famous if he had been born in a different time. I also think he would have a problem shooting in today's world. The world is a lot less innocent. Paranoid.
 
Would Rembrandt have run a digital photography portrait studio had it been around back then? It's all so uncomparable. I guess the answer is yes. And van Gogh would have shot Fuji I think.
 
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Yes, this is true of every famous photographer of note who shot 35mm. This is unquestionable. The only film shooters would be large format shooters like Ansel Adams.
 
NickTrop said:
Yes, this is true of every famous photographer of note who shot 35mm. This is unquestionable. The only film shooters would be large format shooters like Ansel Adams.
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Before his death, Winogrand had bought an 8 x 10 camera and was planning to start using it when he finished his time in Los Angeles and moved back to New York. So...?
 
PKR said:
Both Winogrand and HCB were often not very close to being on the money when it came to good exposure. B+W film is much more forgiving of improper exposure. I can't imagine them chimping. They both worked with B+W negative film and digital exposure is closely related to positive film exposure.
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On a completely off topic note, would this mean the M monochrom would have a larger exposure latitude than a normal M9?
 
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