Gary Miller (gmphotos@earthlink.net)
Mon, 19 Apr 1999 22:22:34 -0700
Patrick makes some very interesting arguments. I have to say that I am
neither for or against digital as a process, however at the moment I am
still a purist and have not jumped into the digital pool.
Reading Patrick's post today I was struck by the way that history repeats
itself. Let us assume that it is 150 years ago, and Patrick is a painter
and the new high tech kid on the block is the 'dreaded' photography with
their sophisticated mechanical devices that record the work in exactitude in
quicktime. The arguments would have been the same, the reluctances. But
remember just as the fear that photography would be the death of painting
was never realized, so too will computers not be the demise of photography.
The computer is a tool, a medium of information, and for some, creativity.
It is no better or worse than any other artistic medium, just different. I
am always surprised by how passionate this argument has become in the
photographic circles. Yes, photography supplies as we know them today will
become more scarce, just as glass plates and mercury development became
scarce and many alternative processes were replaced by the mainstream
factory processes. So what. Isn't this disappearance of the 'good ole
days' and the 'good ole processes' the reason for our existence as a group?
If it were not for people like those on the list many of the historical
processes would have died years ago. There is a great saying in Eastern
philosophy from George Ohsawa; "The bigger the front, the bigger the back".
This can be applied to many things, but in our case as computer related art
and photo-computer art grow (the front) so too has the interest in
alternative processes grown (the back). There are probably more course
taught now in alternative processes/historical processes than at any other
time. If materials get more difficult to obtain then our group should use
the power of a number of individuals to help to obtain what we desire.
Together we share knowledge, and together we have more strengths than as
individuals. Maybe we could be the start of a second photo secession,
almost a hundred years after the first one occurred. Now that would really
be great history repeating itself.
Gary Miller
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