India

Thanks, Jeremy. Ever since I first saw a collection of Steve's work I've been convinced he'll go down as the Cartier-Bresson of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. My reason for putting some of my pictures in the only juried show I've ever entered was that Steve was the main judge. Didn't win anything, but it was a great show. My only, occasional, beef with Steve's work is the frequently over-saturated color. He shot Kodachrome until Kodak stopped making it -- even shot the last roll they produced. Now I guess he'll have to switch to Velvia, which is equally over-saturated. In the early fifties I shot both Kodachrome and Ektachrome. The Kodachrome was so over-saturated that I didn't really care for it, but it was what always was available at that time in Korea. The Ektachrome was subtle and beautiful. Nowadays when I open my transparency files and look, the Kodachrome is just about right; the Ektachrome is practically blank. When I see that, all I can think is "Thank God for digital, which can be subtle or blaring depending on your mood, and doesn't fade with time." Yes, I know some nitpicker is going to explain that out in the future we'll lose the ability to read today's digital files. Converting everything to DNG can put off that day, but, as J.M. Keynes noted, "In the long run we're all dead." Beyond that I'll quote myself: "In the long run everything is biodegradable."