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View Full Version : THE ZEN OF FILM vs. DIGITAL GRATIFICATION


Roy_H
15th April 2009, 09:01 AM
"Doug Menuez is an award-winning documentary photographer based in New York City. While his varied career over 25+ years has ranged from photojournalism to commissioned work and personal fine art book projects"

Doug has written an interesting article, title the same as this post. Here's a little extract to whet your appetites:

“Mulling it over, I couldn’t articulate it fully but definitely, I knew I had become lazy, really lazy. A spectacular sloth by the standards of shooting film. Film is hard. Film is a stone cold unforgiving killing bastard. Film is once in a lifetime, no excuses. F8 and really, really be there: ready, steady, in focus, correct exposure, and pressing the shutter in synch with life.”...
"So my theory is simple: there is something really important, perhaps magical, about the fact that film is so unforgiving that it creates a special mindfulness in the photographer, which in turn increases the chances of making great pictures."

An interesting little read. (http://menuez.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-zen-of-film-vs-digital-gratification/) plus worth reading the comments (92 at the last count).

Trevor Crone
15th April 2009, 12:01 PM
Many thanks Roy, does indeed look interesting. I've printed it off so will be able to read it at leisure.

Film is a wonderful discipline:)

I do like his phrase; "pressing the shutter in synch with life", very Zen.

His comments about instant gratification is for me indicative of the digital movement. A friend of mine has a nice term for photographers who group around the LCD screen looking at their images; "chimping" (after chimpanzee), all you can hear is, "whoo...whoo...whoo!"

PaulG
15th April 2009, 03:13 PM
His comments about instant gratification is for me indicative of the digital movement. A friend of mine has a nice term for photographers who group around the LCD screen looking at their images; "chimping" (after chimpanzee), all you can hear is, "whoo...whoo...whoo!"


Karen Nakamura has a similar definition:

"chimping
The habit of digital photographers to review their previous shots while holding their cameras at arms length and go "Oooh ooh aah aahh." Meanwhile, whatever they are photographing continues to go on and they are missing all of it. "

In fact, her glossary (http://www.photoethnography.com/technique/index.html) is generally quite amusing and worth a read. There are a few gems hidden in there if you look for them.

Roy_H
15th April 2009, 05:46 PM
I think I may have chimped a few times whilst watching a print emerge in the developer...

But it never made it to a glossary - nice link to Nakamura's site Armadillo, I'd been there before but forgotten about it.

PaulG
16th April 2009, 08:01 AM
I think I may have chimped a few times whilst watching a print emerge in the developer...


I think in the grand scheme of things, that sort of chimping is entirely allowable... :)

vincent
16th April 2009, 08:28 PM
Thank you very much Roy for posting that article I really enjoyed reading it. Last night I gave a talk to a camera club based around my B&W work and I found myself paraphrasing quite liberally from the contents the article. The members seemed to enjoy my talk although many of them are digital workers.

Mark Burley
16th April 2009, 11:08 PM
Have now given up extolling the virtue of my darkroom work in cameras clubs - they all look at me in horror when I say darkroom. They can't believe that anyone would want to get old fashioned and smelly in a darkroom.

However, the other photographer I find I most compete with in competitions wishes to learn how to print in a wet darkroom - damn it. That looks like my one edge will disappear!

It still is funny though when they all ask what paper is it that I use. And would it go through an Epson?

I may have to give more than one talk this year - so I might just use a few quotes from that article yet - Ta...

Tom Kershaw
17th April 2009, 12:31 AM
Have now given up extolling the virtue of my darkroom work in cameras clubs - they all look at me in horror when I say darkroom. They can't believe that anyone would want to get old fashioned and smelly in a darkroom.

I don't really get comments about 'smelly darkrooms'. With good ventilation standard black & white process solutions don't contribute much "smell" to the darkroom.

Tom.

Mark Burley
17th April 2009, 09:45 PM
Actually my darkroom does not whiff that much either. Considering I do tone a lot of prints and the ventilation is fairly poor. Its still pretty reasonable really.

So no - I don't get the comment that much either really - it just makes me smile...

Martin Aislabie
21st April 2009, 08:15 PM
Proper Darkrooms have got to have a wiff of Chemicals about them

The slight lingering odour to me its one of the pleasures of walking in there the next day.

Its like the scent of a woman, it wants to be light and almost subliminal not a gagging overpowering stink ;)

Martin

Roy_H
21st April 2009, 08:36 PM
In the period when most of my working day was spent in the darkroom, I'm sure I must have reeked of chemicals, but never received any comments from the family and certainly couldn't smell anything myself (complaints about chemical stains on my clothing where often made though...)

Now that my darkroom/studio is fairly sanitised I still can't smell anything, but a commercial photographer friend (who has long given up wet processing but still yearns for it) visited the other day and his first comment was "ah, that smell!!"

I have to admit that when stooped over a dish of fresh developer I relish the aroma, and fixer - well, that's something really special.

Dave miller
21st April 2009, 08:37 PM
Proper Darkrooms have got to have a wiff of Chemicals about them

The slight lingering odour to me its one of the pleasures of walking in there the next day.

Its like the scent of a woman, it wants to be light and almost subliminal not a gagging overpowering stink ;)

Martin

I take it that you've tried using Rodinal as an aftershave? Some women find that very attractive, at least I think that's what she said; haven't seen her for a while. :confused:

Trevor Crone
21st April 2009, 09:07 PM
I have that aroma of ammonia.........I think its from using selenium toner:confused:

Tom Stanworth
11th May 2009, 07:19 AM
Selenium toner - the instant headache (even with ventilation) - but indispensable!

I liked the article too. It was turned into a traditional vs. d***** circus on RFF, sadly...

So much of what I do is about what it feels like to do it (otherwise I would not). It is sometimes difficult to separate the end result from the road we took to get there because the latter does affect your desire to walk the road in the first place!

I cannot remove emotion from getting my kit ready, the mounting buzz as I prepare for some shooting and the sense of engagement I get working with things that clunk and wind and have relatively few bleepy flashing bits. It surely has to be about what feels right to have as part of the experience, not only from a technical delivery perspective, but also from a personal engagement perspective. To say otherwise, is like saying all that matters about a job is the paycheck and that what it feels like to do it should have no bearing on your determination to get through it to the paycheck.... and that to do anything else is somehow nonobjective.

If a person is photographing living, breathing, feeling things - whether a beautiful landscape or documentary work - surely your own sense of being has to have a place in that context (whether that sense of ease comes from film or 'the other way'. To succeed in your endeavour, can it ever be otherwise? If it were, photographers would be disengaged, unfeeling machines without a care as to the actual experience of shooting and being engaged in the activity itself, concerned only with the 'output' and regarding everything in between as a tool. Perhaps that would then extend to the subject. The equipment we use are tools, but personal ones. Just like craftsmen have favourite tools that defy logical explanation, but are nonetheless essential to their own personal peace.

I find it a fascinating subject, in part because the technicians are often the first to demand that everything be considered on an entirely objective, rational basis, when the end results we pursue are frequently everything but. I suppose the argument extends to the messy worker, who would surely produce better results if he tidied up, use the latest techniques and measured things more often, rather than 'guesstimated'. It does not seem to work that way, because it seems that the sense of harmony and connection - a spell if you like - which binds everything in that craft/art together, can be rather fragile.

Target shooters (and other sportsmen) talk about 'the zone' and how to get into it. Inside there is calm, a slower pulse and a sense of detachment that brings better scores, which make the difference between being right up there and at the bottom of the list. I am convinced the same applies to making images. You have to be in the zone to get beneath the surface of yourself before the subject and everyone's route in getting there is different.

Steve_F
12th May 2009, 09:58 AM
I have to agree completely with the quote of Doug Menuez.
I too admit to being 'lazy' and take so many shots on my digital equipment, and haven't used the darkroom in months.
Yesterday I 'dusted-off' Sekonic h/h meter, my RZ67 and loaded it with Velvia 50 to get some shots of my 22 month old son in the garden on his slide. Quite the challenge, everything back to front, exposure needs to spot on, composition, manual focus etc. It was quite scary how the rot had set in (digital mentality), no pulling highlights back or opening up the shadows (from the RAW files) or cropping, but it felt so satisfying knowing that when everything came together for that split (1/400) second the quality was going to be everything I'd anticipated.
When I began photography in 1996 I used unforgiving tranny film to learn the disciplines and yesterday gave me that same satisfaction.
Just need the weather to hold to finish the roll (10 per roll instead of 77 per card!) then I can get a top quality cibachrome printed from BPD Photech

Steve.