Opening shot ....

Well, a new venture, starting off with the best of intentions.

Photography is an art form that has its many controversies and perspectives. Plenty of grist for the mill, to use an old cliche.

Right now, a lot is changing for photographers: digital has certainly made a big impact, but paradoxically, it is also a golden age for those of us who want to work with traditional equipment and materials. Film persists, and likely will, in some form, for a long time to come. I consider film and digital to almost be different media, for reasons that I will discuss in future posts.

While I exclusively use film for my "fine art" images, I do shoot digital, and print from scans as well as in the darkroom. The important thing, in the end, is the image. Either it is an image of artistic and technical merit, or it is not. I personally don't much care how the photons were captured. I will NOT engage in the puerile film vs. digital debate. Ever.

I do care about ethics, though. All of my images, regardless of process, are faithful representations of the scene as found. I do not accept compositing of images (i.e. superimposing a great shot of a tree over a separate great sky shot) as photography - it is a form of collage, and needs to be declared as such. It is reprehensible to not be open about such matters, and undermines the faith in photographers at large: a significant element of the appeal of an image is the fact that it does capture a special moment, albeit through the photographer's vision. Sadly, I see such shenanigans by "photographers", undeclared, in a cheesy attempt to wow folks into buying their images.

Is a photograph merely a record? No, it is a deliberate selection of a tiny slice of time and space. A successful photograph depends on the visual communication with the viewer. It stands on its own, and needs no verbiage. The more text, the less successful the image.

I've touched on a range of topics, and I'll revisit each in more detail as time goes by. I hope that you find these posts interesting and thought provoking, whether or not you are a photographer.

Stay tuned ........