Top photographers condemn digital age

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/thi...p?story=565781
Top photographers condemn digital age
Experts are warning traditional photography could become a museum craft,
write Nicholas Pyke and Andrew Johnson, but some greats are up in arms
26 September 2004


Terry O'Neill, one of the world's most published photographers, has
condemned the rapid spread of digital cameras for wrecking the art of taking
pictures.

He believes digital cameras are only fit for "amateurs and paparazzi", and
that the technology is turning all pictures into "snapshots".

His criticisms follow a week in which Eastman Kodak admitted the film
business is declining at twice the speed of previous estimates, while Dixons
reported that four out of five camera sales are digital.

Ilford Imaging in Cheshire, the world's largest producer of black and white
photo materials, went into receivership in July, thanks to traditional
photography's decline.

Digital cameras take pictures in much the same way as traditional ones, but
the image is "captured" electronically and stored in the internal memory.
The images can be printed out and saved onto a computer or CD.

With prices falling rapidly - digital SLR cameras are available for less
than £1,000 and the cheapest costs £15 - the technology is now so popular
that Kodak will stop selling film cameras in most of the world by the end of
this year. But O'Neill, who rose to prominence with Vogue and Paris Match in
the 1960s, is one of many leading photographers resisting the change.

They say the quality of the new images remains inferior and traditional
negatives are a more reliable record of the past than electronic archives.
Millions of photographs have already been lost because most digital camera
ownersnever print their pictures out.

"You will always get better quality with film. You can talk to any darkroom
expert about that," O'Neill said. "I don't use digital, and I'll always use
film. Digital is for amateurs and paparazzi photographers. There is a great
skill in photography. Digital cameras reduce everything to a snapshot."

Lord Snowdon is another prominent fan of old-fashioned cameras, as are the
award-winning news photographers Tom Stoddart and Don McCullin. The leading
landscape photographer David Parker, currently exhibiting at the Michael
Hoppen Gallery in London, relies on film and described its decline as the
end of an era.

Film will account for less than half of Kodak's profits by next year, and
looks set to disappear from non-specialist stores. The digital revolution
has also left thousands with unusable "intermediate" technology on their
hands, as the APS format is now virtually redundant.

Lord Lichfield, the royal photographer who took the official portraits of
Prince Charles's wedding to Diana believes film cameras are disappearing so
fast that the art of taking pictures and developing them in a darkroom will
soon be regarded as a museum craft. He, though, has become a cheerleader for
the digital age. "Terry O'Neill is a dinosaur. I love him dearly and he's a
mate, but he's a dinosaur," he said. "I haven't shot a roll of film for five
years. I'm saving £80-90,000 a year.

"Digital technology does have phenomenal advantages and I really can't see
any disadvantages. I have no qualms in saying it produces the quality of
reproduction that all my clients require. The change will inevitably inspire
a new generation of 'art' photographers using traditional methods, like
craftsmen."

The celebrity photographer Dave Bennett also relies on the new technology.
"Film was always a bit of a mystery anyway. There was always the fear that
you'd open the back of the camera and ruin the lot," he said. "The romance
of film will be lost, but that's about all."

David Hockney, who made his name with both paintings and photographs,
described the rise of digital technology as the biggest change since the
invention of chemical printing more than 160 years ago. He said it would
abolish an old-fashioned - and often mistaken - belief that the camera does
not lie.

"The end of chemical photography is a more profound change than any
technical change there's been in photography," he said. In future people
will accept digital photographs, which can be electronically manipulated,
are no more objective than paintings. All images are made by something and
someone. Even with a surveillance camera the boundaries of the shot have
been fixed by someone." Mr Hockney, though, has lost interest in photography
and no longer bothers with cameras.

"The thing is that the camera is a bore in the way it looks at the world,"
he said. "Picasso and Matisse are far more exciting - and I'm all for
excitement."

LEADING PHOTOGRAPHERS CHOOSE THEIR FAVOURITE IMAGES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE

Family picture an iconic pre-war image

Sunday on the Banks of the River Marne was taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson in
1938. Following Cartier-Bresson's death this year, the simple photo of a
French family picnicking was described by the Economist as "almost a last
pre-war moment of stillness".

Nominated by Terry O'Neill, Patrick Lichfield and David Hockney

Seascape born out of trickery

Gustave Le Gray's 1857 print The Great Wave was captured near Montpellier on
the southern French coast. Considered the most important French photographer
of the 19th century, Le Gray used trickery to produce this image, combining
two separate negatives.

Nominated by David Parker

Story of corset creation is stuff of legend

The Mainbocher Corset (1939) remains the most famous photograph from Horst P
Horst's celebrated 60-year career. The story of its creation is the stuff of
fashion legends, as Horst himself had shouted abuse at his model until she
burst into tears. When the model then turned away, he shot the image. The
print has sold at auction for $17,000.

Nominated by Dave Bennett