Musing April 2014
Adapt, Migrate or Die
The only constant in life is change. Whether looking at this from the perspective of an ecosystem or a species, life forms adapt, migrate, or die in response to the changes. In a small way the same can be said about photography. Throughout the relatively short history of this medium the changes in equipment, in how a photograph can be made and in how an art form came to be have been extraordinary. With each shift photographers have either made the decision to adapt to new technology, migrate to new ways of working or leave the medium behind. All of us have mourned the loss of a favorite film, paper or camera. Many have struggled with the decision to change formats, from big to small, or film to digital. Why is it such a struggle to adapt if change is so common a situation?
I just bought my first real digital camera. After watching the digital evolution for the past 20 years I finally decided to jump in. In 1987 while in graduate school I asked about digital photography. The only person doing anything with digital was working in the fabric design department. In the early 1990’s I had a chance to join Kodak’s Center for Creative Imaging here in Camden. That enterprise lasted only a couple of years before it died, unable to evolve as fast as the technology. Since then I’ve watched the digital evolution of both Canon and Nikon cameras. Fifteen years ago the conversation was “Will a digital image ever equal be to one from film?” Ten years ago that conversation evolved into “How much more can a digital image look like a film image?” Today the conversation has evolved to “Why film at all?”
For me the conversation has always been about how I work. For over a decade the argument about image quality from a digital camera no longer exists. How one makes photographs is still worthy of discussion because these preferences shape our decisions. For example, I generally travel with both a large format camera (8×10 or 5×12) and a 5×7. The 5×7 is my easy-to-use and light-to-carry kit. If I am extremely limited in carrying space I take just the 5×7. In the early evolution of digital cameras, there was a vast gulf between the cameras that shot full frame and raw to capture the most information and the digital point and shoot. I want the information in a large negative and so the full frame raw capture, especially above 15 or 20 megapixels, would give me that information. However, by the time I packed a full frame SLR, a couple of lenses and batteries, the camera bag weighed almost as much as a 5×7 kit. I saw no advantage to swapping one heavy kit for another.
A few years ago things shifted. Live view became a common feature on many cameras. Now you could put the camera on a tripod and look at the LCD screen on the back of the camera. All of a sudden the DSLR could be used like a view camera but the image was right side up! That got me thinking about the possibilities of digital. Next I began to see Leica digital cameras with live view on the back screen that used the traditional Leica lenses. For me, the price kept me from jumping in. The third change was seeing beautiful images come out of mirror-less cameras (rangefinder style) with smaller sensors. Olympus was the first system I saw that impressed me. A friend produced a beautiful portfolio of prints that looked like they had been made with a view camera. Sharp, detailed and with a view camera aesthetic, but made with an Olympus mirror-less camera. I saw the Fuji mirror-less system at another workshop. It was like holding a Leica camera. I felt comfortable with the camera the first time I held it. It offered interchangeable lenses, prime lenses as well as zoom lenses. I knew Fuji made great lenses; in fact I have several for my view camera. “All of a sudden” the digital world made sense for me.
Last summer I took the plunge and bought my first Fuji X Pro 1. I have used it on several trips along the Erie Canal, to China and during the Alabama workshop. I am looking at it to replace my 5×7 kit. The files it produces are large enough for me to be able to make digital negatives (roughly 5×7) for platinum printing. Up until now it has served as my second camera but this month I am taking my first photo trip with only my digital camera! Will I revert to my days as a journalist and work handheld and off the cuff? Will I use it on a tripod to work more formally? Or will I be flexible enough to work in whatever way this new camera system takes me? It is not going to replace my large view cameras, but it may replace the 5×7. If you come to our gallery this summer, you will see some 5×7 platinum prints made with my new Fuji X Pro 1. Hopefully you will not be able to tell which are from film and which were made with the digital camera.
Even I, dedicated to working with large format cameras for over 25 years, can sense the changing times. I am consciously, with some apprehension, adapting to new equipment and migrating to new ways of working, vowing not to die as an artist.
Adapt, Migrate or Die. These are our only choices as photographers, as enthusiasts for the medium and as artists.
Tillman Crane