I think we should discuss these questions, because we should be careful not to
go into the same dead end road, that the pictorialists went to. Not the
protagonists of that time, but the unreflected and decorative mass work of
amateurs and professionals once helped to disqualify the alternative processes.
E. g. it's easy to say that using alt. photo. processes today may be to set a
counterpoint against new imaging technologies with no haptical qualities. And no
painter would permit the paint industry to tell him how to apply the color to
the canvas. So photographers would cut out a part of their creative repertoire.
But Ansel Adams and Weston could create an atmosphere without using haptical
properties of their prints. (And don't tell me the zone system did it...) They
had s. th. to say and new the language. I myself believe that the imaging
material/technique can help to comunicate and can improve you grammar - if you
have s. th. to say. But it also can serve as the kings new clothes (or how is
that fairytale called in proper english?).
Klaus Pollmeier