Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Nostalgia for out-dated technology
Here’s one for the amateur photographers out there. Are there significant advantages to still having a non-digital camera? Or is this simply a case of nostalgia, and a fear of computers and their supposed impersonality/complexity/sterility? Is the author right in comparing this to revolutions in audio technology? Would any of you fancy going back to 78 rpm records for example? What about other technologies, like changes in forms of transport? Is it important to preserve the old when you move on to the new? Are you sad to see film photography disappear?
Since I am interested in photography I was really glad to see this article on the blog. Moreover, a focus on the distinction of analogue photography is a reflection of what I have been thinking recently about. The thing is that I, myself, am the one who was growing up in a digital era and was impressed by analogue photography while looking for something new, something that differs from the digitalized world. In an effort of looking for something different I learnt to capture pictures with film cameras, process black-and-white film and consequently develop its photographs. I must say that it was worth it, I still love to capture moments with film, in fact even more than with a digital camera.
ReplyDeleteBut apparently I was born in to the wrong era. It is a fact, indeed, that the film photography is coming to a distinction slowly. I was quite surprised how significantly the number of production of film cameras and film processing has been reduced just in a few years. On the other hand, however, those who decided to stay faithful to the analogue cameras became somehow unique. After all, I have to say that the color, quality and even a feeling and passion that are transferred to the photo while taking it on a film is different than on the digital photo, in fact better. Unfortunately as this old-fashioned style of taking photo is fading, films and processing are getting more and more expensive.
Interestingly, despite the high price, there has been an increase in a number of people who began to grow an interest in film photography recently, probably for the reason that I just mentioned. They seem to have found the difference in an analogue photo that is quite magical, indeed. For this reason I truly hope that this small community will still grow and the film will never come to a distinction. After all, I think that photography is not an art unless it is taken with the film camera and it never will be. How can something be an art what everybody with a digital camera and computer can achieve?