May 2011

i recently read a post by a fellow photographer stating that they were going to try and revive the medium of film …well i am here to tell you that film has always been alive and well despite most photographers converting to digital…while i have incorporated the digital medium over the last two years or so in certain aspects of my work,  i have and will always photograph in film…the colors, the depth and warmth that film produces in the right hands goes unmatched…i will admit that it has irked me from time to time when a photographer calls themselves a “fine art” photographer and shows mostly images that have been overprocessed with actions and photoshop…i have always believed that the term fine art should  be reserved for those who are carefully crafting images in camera and making adjustments in the lab or darkroom to produce something that only they can create with their specific vision and style…now that is not to say that a photographer who shoots digitally can’t produce an exquisite fine art image…certainly they can as is shown in the work of marie labbancz and christian oth…but if you look at their work, you will not see overdone cookie cutter images…you will see something special…as you will in the work of my favorite photographers, all of whom shoot and have always shot 100% film…jose villa, lisa lefkowitz and elizabeth messina to name a few…i believe this is because you have to be much more methodical in the way that you capture and produce images…film shooters don’t shoot thousands of images from the hip and take them back to a computer to fix or edit…i have seen many changes since i started photographing events 16 years ago…some really great and some not so great…sometimes just because you have the technology doesn’t always mean you should use or overuse every bit of it…the flood gates have opened to anyone who can afford the price of a pro digital camera and photoshop with a set of actions, people that held other jobs last year are hanging shingles this year without the slightest bit of training or photographic knowledge and thus have almost completely diminished what used to be considered an art form…the field in general seems exceedingly “noisy” to me…i actually miss the quiet when you weren’t bombarded from every angle…when the only noise you heard was the sound of the shutter being released…when one simply gorgeous image would take your breath away…there is something so beautiful in the quiet, deliberate composition and technical knowledge of an artist who knows how to create an image organically from start to finish…most people do not understand the difference until they are shown and then they get it…it will continue to be my goal to produce meaningful, visually appealing images in all mediums i employ and i thank my clients for giving me the chance to create just one more image…regardless, i’m here to tell you that FILM IS NOT DEAD and has never been in our world here!