Erwin Puts - The Tao of Leica - 2012 Thoughts

[rasterdogs]

Erwin Puts interesting perspective on photography in 2012:
http://www.imx.nl/photo/page152/page152.html#unique-entry-id-100

The first sentence:
"2012 is the year that photography lost its magic of anticipation and power to surprise and enchant."
I've found his writings to be thoughtful and provocative.

-rasterdogs

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Interestingly enough, I was looking at a lot of 6x7 Velvia slides in projection yesterday. It was a great experience. The photographer, that was me. I was using a Minolta Spotmeter and I was quite good at using it. Those old slides were a great experience. Those slides will last a many year.

But, there is a downside. I can shoot DSLRs with ease. I can use all tricks I even learned even with a DSLR.

On the other hand, the only way to enjoy those images is in projection. I happen to own a Götschman 67 projector, an impressive piece of home made German engineering, bought it for 3000$ and it's manual feed. Using the images involves scanning on my 3000$ scanner no longer made or sending to a lab for drum scanning.

With the digital camera it is a click. A raw file of very high quality and excellent raw processing engines.

Best regards
Erik

Erwin Puts interesting perspective on photography in 2012:
http://www.imx.nl/photo/page152/page152.html#unique-entry-id-100

The first sentence:
"2012 is the year that photography lost its magic of anticipation and power to surprise and enchant."
I've found his writings to be thoughtful and provocative.

-rasterdogs

[Wim van Velzen]

Ah yes, I do have two 6x6 projectors. Lovely way of viewing photographs.

At the moment I am in the process of putting images on my site. Nice files shrunk to web size. Even a good and large monitor shows these pictures only at about 30 or 40%, or 100% and then only a small part is to be seen.

I am not really into printing (yet?) but would to have a screen or projector that is say 6000x4000 or therabouts. The bottleneck is not in taking pictures but in viewing them.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Just as a side note, these are all scans from film, mostly Velvia 67.

http://echophoto.smugmug.com/Travel/Sextener-Dolomiten/

Best regards
Erik

Erwin Puts interesting perspective on photography in 2012:
http://www.imx.nl/photo/page152/page152.html#unique-entry-id-100

The first sentence:
"2012 is the year that photography lost its magic of anticipation and power to surprise and enchant."
I've found his writings to be thoughtful and provocative.

-rasterdogs

[Rob C]

I think Puts is right.

I felt similar feelings right from the advent of my digital experince, knowing that had it existed back in the 50s, by its very nature it would have turned me right off photography. No, that's too strong: I simply wouldn't have been interested in the first place - I'd have stuck with paints and pencils or just dropped right out and taken a different job.

Rob C

[rasterdogs]

I think Puts' thoughts are provocative but not universally true.

Unlike some here I've abandoned film and never looked back.
I grew up in a mom & pop portrait studio. My chores were working in the darkroom.
I printed and processed chromogenic color along with BW.
I miss none of that.

It strikes me that the avalanche of digital images and the prominent distribution of them in electronic form
is making 'Photographers' a small niche.  I'm beginning to think that digital images printed on paper will
become a smaller and smaller niche emulating the devolution of film use.

I wonder how many dslr users print their images. I won't need a D800 for my FB and/or Flickr images.

No telling where the disruption ends.   
-Rasterdogs

[Rob C]

I think you are right; small high street studios seem, to me, the most vulnerable because everybody has a camera and not all small businesses can produce better work than can some of their customers - and then it's just a matter of time.

I would imagine that high-end advertising, fashion and also product photography simply has to exist in order to allow manufacturers to showcase their products. But magazines - I wonder. So much is now online, and magazines have become very expensive for what is, mostly, terrible design with too much content crammed onto every page. I can really see the big glossies fade away. Compare the leading fashion magazines of twenty-five years ago or more, with clean covers and minimal interference on the pictures, with the state of some of them now: just like catalogues. It's all going southwards insofar as style is concerned. IMO.

Rob C