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Back to the Basics
Searching for the love of grain in a digital world.
I think Beck, the avant garde artist who rose to fame in the 1990s, said it best when he said “in the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.” In keeping with that sentiment, after more than 20 years of shooting digital photography, I’m switching to film.
Now, to be clear, I’m not abandoning the digital process. Simply put, shooting digital is an extremely efficient workflow when it comes to my editorial and stock work. For me, that is the greatest benefit of digital photography.
However even as quick and simple as digital photography is, it has always lacked something. Digital cameras are amazing tools. High resolution, film simulations, lightning fast frames per second, the ability to transmit your work to clients directly from your camera. They are wonderful in what they do.
They have, and certainly when you consider the iPhone, opened the door of photography to beginners and hobbyists who may have never picked up a camera before. For my professional work it is hard to imagine doing it on film, in some instances, I just wouldn’t be able to. Often clients need pictures quickly, especially in sports and news.
Still, the pixel process lacks something. There is no magic, no sense of anticipation waiting for your film to be developed. The process of shooting film…