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Old 17th August 2014, 09:08 AM
FilmAyrshire FilmAyrshire is offline
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Default The golden age of photography?

Yesterday I watched a programme about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and one of the contributors proposed that in any of the arts the "golden age" can be defined as, "the period when the creator's ambition and imagination is greater than the technology available".

Do you think this true of photography and film photography in particular?
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Old 17th August 2014, 11:07 AM
Eriktheviking Eriktheviking is offline
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I think I disagree with the definition of "Golden Age" given by your question. I think every creative art form which for me includes all photography has a "Golden Age" and for me that is when there is a flood of ambition and imagination from many creators using what is available to create the most amazing creations. With this in mind for me the Golden Age of photography has to be the period from the late 19thC to about the 1930's / 40's
This is a very personal view as I feel this period saw the greatest advancement in film technology, camera technology and the imagination of photographers in using these new found advancements. Personally I think most people today are creating personal copies of techniques which were originally created many years ago.
Many people will possibly disagree with me but how many times have we heard someone comment that an image created today is of the style of a photographer from the period I have mentioned?
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Old 17th August 2014, 01:02 PM
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Since the BBC and most of the people that are on it are so LO/FI I would take anything you hear on it with a pinch of salt.
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Old 17th August 2014, 02:12 PM
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To define the 'Golden Age' of any medium as being time at which the materials available were unable to meet the needs of Artists seems perverse.
Photography is still relatively new. Painting, music and sculpture are thousands of years old. Photography has been around less than 200 years, and at first was limited to a dedicated few. Photography as an 'easily' accessible medium probably dates from the first Kodak Brownie. Golden Age? Perhaps we haven't even had one yet.
I could suggest that for Photojournalism a Golden Age might have been through the 1960's and 70's.
Fast, tough, capable 35mm cameras and even tougher photographers. Men and women who braved wars and famines to expose suffering. More importantly, there were newspapers and magazines funding them and audiences for the work.
Today, newspapers are laying off photographers and using phone pictures sourced for free from the public. As for the Audience, the great British public now wants celeb gossip, not suffering.
I think photography as a medium is now no more important to most people than the music supermarkets like to play in the background.
What an old curmudgeon!
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Old 17th August 2014, 02:52 PM
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David Brown David Brown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FilmAyrshire View Post
Do you think this true of photography and film photography in particular?
Um, no.
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Old 17th August 2014, 03:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
Today, newspapers are laying off photographers and using phone pictures sourced for free from the public. As for the Audience, the great British public now wants celeb gossip, not suffering.
Totally agree, in photojournalism I would probably say it is closer to a dark age. Also I think in recent conflicts the military has been even more protective over what it allows access to.
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Old 17th August 2014, 03:26 PM
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Quote:
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Totally agree, in photojournalism I would probably say it is closer to a dark age. Also I think in recent conflicts the military has been even more protective over what it allows access to.
This is a good point. So much is stage managed so that we are spoon fed what they want us to see.
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Old 17th August 2014, 05:46 PM
Keith Cocker Keith Cocker is offline
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Nobody has ever lived in a Golden Age. "The Golden Age" is always before our time!
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Old 17th August 2014, 08:02 PM
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My golden age of my photography is still to come. Aways striving for a better print.
Photography has change, everybody now thinks they are a photographer.
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Old 17th August 2014, 08:30 PM
TonyMiller TonyMiller is offline
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I think "everybody thinks they are a photographer" comes about because of new technology and the ease of making a picture. To some extent we all rely on some kind of technology in photography whether in a so-called 'golden age' or not. Personally I'd like to strive to get beyond the technology to where ideas and imagination play a bigger part. Harder said than done though, but no reason not to try!
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