Hey fans of photography! I saw a bumper sticker today. It said: Film is not dead. Really? I must have missed the notice. Film is IS dead. To say FILM IS NOT DEAD, is a lot like saying, “anything my parents believe is wrong.” Grow the fuck up.
Go ahead and make your living as a so called “artist, ” that shoots film. Get back to me when you’re living on the streets of Denton under an overpass, and I will come out and photograph you with my digital camera. Feel Free To Think.
Yes, film has a different, and barely distinct, set of technical values – late in the second decade of the 21st. Century. But will the typical viewer be able to distinguish between what I do digitally (assuming we print), and what you do on film? Well, they may notice you are showing your work on the inside of the open trunk of your ’63 Chevy, but otherwise? Hell no.
We live in a world where the still image decision makers have no clue, no education and no real interest in quality – that is at least the decision makers I know best. The downward spiral of mediocrity continues at an increasing pace …
For example. How many two year projects have you seen from the streets of little old Denton, Texas … Three year, five year? None. I am about five couches away from printing my book and accompanying images, “Couch Art; Denton Street Photography Volume I,” in 2020. Will there be copycats? Will the minions of maven-hood from local University of North Texas or Texas Women’s University’s photography perk up? Oh, hell no. We live in the era of, “If I didn’t do it, it didn’t happen,” and that is that. Thankfully, I don’t have to pander to the newly, and perpetually “educated.”
No, I have to pander to a completely different set of standards and principles. More about that later though …