Postcards from the Creative Journey

432 - Filling the Inside Straight

Ivey Ellington House - Again

If the subject matter is close at hand, can you ever be really finished with a project? Would you go back and try to “fill the inside straight” by making new photographs that can be inserted in the current project? Or should you try to figure out how to expand the completed project with an additional chapter? That would be calling your initial project “complete” and then creating the next chapter in your story.

I recently came up with this question because I was asked to photograph a mural that will probably disappear as part of a building renovation. I saw a nice composition across the street at the Ivey Ellington House so I walked over a bit and made the photograph on today’s blog. It wasn’t a summer morning or a winter day, but I saw an opportunity and made an image.

Now, what to do with it after posting it on the blog? Is it the start of the next chapter of the Academy Street Project or does it elbow its way into the Southern Gothic project?

431 - Post-Craft Photography (3 of 3)

Two Windows

Unplanned consequences always follow dramatic technical changes. In the case of photography, removing the technical challenges has brought about two huge changes. The first is to amplify the democracy of the photographic art. Virtually everyone (thanks to the ubiquitous and technologically advanced smart phones) can now create a technically good photograph.  In short, the number of good photographs for us to look at will increase because the number of technically perfect photographs will increase. We will be inundated with all sorts of photographs coming at us from many different sources. Selecting photographs to share and editing these photographs will now be a huge skill photographers of all types will have to master. Figuring out what your photographs need to say and the story they tell will be the most important skill a photographer will have to learn. 

The second is the most important consequence for those of us creating personally expressive photographs is this; the adoration of craft is over. Let me repeat that to make a point. The adoration of craft is over. Making a beautiful photograph is no longer a very difficult task. The mechatronics of photographic equipment has eliminated the struggle to create sharp, clear, properly exposed images. There used to be an entire class of art photographers whose major claim to fame was their ability to craft a superior silver gelatin print. These photographers served to inspire us solely on the basis of technical mastery. Technology has made more of us technical masters and that is really a good thing.

The only difference among photographs is the content of the photograph because the attainment of technical control is all but assured through advanced technology. The quality of a photograph is measured on the message delivered by the photographer. What the photograph says is how a photograph should be judged. Others have said it and I will add my voice to those that say, “Content is King.” 

430 - The Last Refuge of Craft (2 of 3)

At Water's Edge

Hand coated platinum print

It seems almost a contradiction, but the pursuit of the less than absolutely perfect technical photograph does exist and is valiantly fighting a rear guard action against the onslaught of the technically perfect image. The Last Refuge of Craft is the alternative process. The hand coated, contact print, be it platinum, cyanotype, bromoil or any other antique process is a wonderful counterpoint to the precise, sharp, clear smooth surfaced digital print. Working with these processes still requires knowledge, skill and judgement to make a good print. There are no ways to automate, optimize and bring technology to bear on the creation of a consistently technically perfect hand coated print made with an alternative process. This could be the last stand of photographic craft. I hope it goes on forever. New photographers need to be reminded of the struggles it took to make a wet process photograph.

429 - Where Has the Craft Gone? (1 of 3)

1938 Talbot-Lago T-150C-SS

A long time ago (not in a galaxy far away) photography had a very recognizable and significant commitment to craft. One had to learn optics, chemistry, intricacies of calculating exposures and then recall your experiences to modify the manual settings when required. The learning process had to be repeated specifically for wet darkroom printing. Technology replaced the technical knowledge, skill and judgement of the photographer with electronics and software. I recently discovered cameras that will not only auto focus, they will automagically focus stack to insure your photograph is tack sharp front to back as well as perform the (now mundane) task of calculating the optimum exposure. The sharpness of the image is pretty much guaranteed because this camera has image stabilization in both the lens and camera body. Once you record this incredibly perfect collection of digital information (I almost hesitate to call it a photograph), process it with software and then print it out with nine inks, whatever you have created is absolutely technically perfect.

Most of this perfection is courtesy of the craft of mechatronics and software engineers. When you have the most advanced technology making your photographs technically perfect I ask myself, “Where has craft gone?”

More on this topic next week.