[alt-photo] Re: "sustainable market for film"

[Judy Seigel]

I think the comment about "sustainable market" for film may miss the 
point. As long as the folks (note, please, polite term for relics, or 
fossils, or --- ----s) who learned photography with film and still use it, 
remain active, the "market" for film may well be "sustainable" in some 
form or other.

But when the time comes (if not already here) that students learning 
photography learn digital -- and film is only a specialty or relic (maybe 
with a film-making "list" on line) as, odds are, it will be... there will 
be a dwindling unto collapse of that "market."  It may not happen in our 
life times, and we can be thankful for that, but it will happen.

Then, perhaps, folks will learn to coat some flexible material with a 
silver solution (as we learned to coat a sheet of paper with, for 
instance, gum bichromate solution) and make "alternate photographs" with 
old style "film," but..... where is the market for buggy whips nowadays 
(other than antique stores) ? Is there a factory still making them? (not 
to mention that roll cameras would also go out of production).

And here I mostly guess, tho I daresay someone on this list will know 
more, if not all:  It's my understanding that the making and use of film 
and analog photo products are environmentally grievous (for instance I 
remember list discussion of problems for folks with septic tanks in 
disposing of their solutions). Is it possible that digital photography 
will be considerably less troublesome ?

Judy

On Tue, 23 Mar 2010, Jeremy Moore wrote:

> I wouldn't say "shoot fast", but "shoot a lot." If there's a sustainable
> market there will be film. It may not be on the massive scale of Kodak, but
> there will be film. Hell, you can still get your buggy whip repaired:
> http://jedediahsbuggywhip.com/
>
> <http://jedediahsbuggywhip.com/>-Jeremy-
>
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 12:32 PM, etienne garbaux <
> photographeur at nerdshack.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Shoot fast.  According to friends in the industry, 120 film from reliable
>> suppliers is unlikely to survive another decade.  Even 35mm film from
>> reliable suppliers may be gone by then.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> etienne
>>
>>
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