Photo Student

by Cameron Bunce
(Rock Hill SC)

I think there's an interesting thing happening already in the comments. People are describing a future way of buying components to a system that mimics the way that medium format systems work today.

This is the obscure range of the hyper-enthusiast, the serious professional and the artist.

What happens in this young field, is waves of new technology and adoption and honing. Salt prints were whiz-bang until they faded. Then, the world of photography was chemists and rich people with time on their hands (much like today) and they made it work and fiddled with it until Mr. Daguerre flipped everything upside down and made positives from his little wooden magic box, and it was down to a regional debate over which process you used (or could afford to use).

What has happened to the state of printing through the years? What has happened to emulsions? I was in B&H a while back and a guy was asking me if one of the Fuji emulsions was close enough to a Kodak emulsion because he used to use one but it has been recently discontinued. He shot portraits on negative film. And I understand that saturation makes a difference in skin tones and all of that, don't get me wrong. But when we rely too much on ANY one piece of our system, it will fail. It will go out of production and no amount of letter writing will save it, or you'll find that no one has parts for your prism anymore, or your shutter will fail catastrophically. It will happen and you'll have to put a good friend down.

But will it take down a career? Do you think of it as a career?

There will always be levels of photography. And for that matter, all levels of photographers. And all have their places. High schoolers will look to their friends and the camera-phones they use for images every day. Newspapers will need things immediately as they do, and some will know the power of film. Wire services need authenticity that can document itself. Wedding parties want images, and they want them pretty (and they should be beautiful - by any means). The art world will always be mostly silly, with a ton of people making crap up - until Art Criticism comes back from its wishy-washy hiatus.

But good photographers will make good images with whatever suits the image. Use something well, know it well, and know the shortcomings. Don't shoot the Olympics with a disposable from the upper deck - and don't knock anyone just for using a disposable. Don't use flash just because it's there and don't knock someone just for using flash.

We will get back to the value of images, but only by seeing valuable images. And we will only see valuable images once they're shot. So close the laptop (unless you do amazing things with the iSight camera) get outside, or in the studio, or wherever your subject is, and shoot. Then DON'T SHOW IT TO ANYONE. You aren't done (necessarily). Look at it. Figure it out. Live with it. Then shoot it again. Repeat until amazing.