Even more since I read an interesting manuscript called “Rauchzeichen aus dem Labyrinth - Der onthologische Anspruch der Photographie” by Steffen Kammler last year (“Rostocker Phänomenologische Manuskripte”).
Bringing what i read in the manuscript together with what i saw in Richard Nicholsons project and what I experience of being a photographer that still partly processes in the darkroom, i was wondering … “What esle is going to be gone if the photographic darkroom really dies out? Where (if there) is this thin border between photography in the broader and photography in the narrower sense? The border, that after Steffen Kammler and in conjunction with the darkroom would have to be drawn behind “the negative that has been the last instance that has direct contact with the light and therefore carries the trace of the referent”? Something that digital photography can not claim for itself as “the lightsensor that literally takes the place of the photosensitive layer, in comparison does not show any trace of contact after the contact with the light …” because “the location of the light-contact is seperated from the location where the information is stored.” (Steffen Kammler, Rauchzeichen …, page 28).
I’m not a philosopher and I know that in the end it might not really matter for the (average) spectator. But still I do - as an artist - confront myself with the media I’m working with. As I had to deal with some slight problems after Kodak lately decided to stop production of a certain paper I partly used over the last 9 years of printing - and loved, I had to think about that question of the media even more and had to involuntarily compare those two (very different) crafts from an at least process oriented point of view:
“The craft and process of taking a negative, filterting colors and getting a result by printing in the darkroom” VS “the craft of scanning a negative and trimming dozens of adjustment layers” to get a similar result.
It’s not that I decided to switch from analog processing to digital. It was a “just in case” for a “worst case” scenario where - in my case - Fuji decides to discontinue their Kodak “equivalent” out of the blue!!!! (A scenario artists, photographers,… unwillingly have to deal with due to technical changes, lobbying or companies stopping the production of certain fundamental ressources of their work; not just in photography.) However; I started comparing the procedures and steps that would bring me to that similar result and I started wondering about which craft carried more of that (non existant) claim to reality that (from a laymen’s and not philosophical or mediat-heoretical perspective) makes photography the photography “we somehow believe in”. And I came to the conclusion, that for me personally it is more “the process in the photographic darkroom” than the one infront of the screen and dozens of layers changing the appearance of a picture, that gives me that unique (authentic-like) feeling of being a photographer documenting the world around me. Although I know that I’m still a photographer (not better or worse) if I use my digital camera (that i like aswell - no digital hater here) to make a picture. But still; it’s just different and not the same. If it has something to do with Steffen Kammler’s statements, i don’t know. But I know there is space to give it some more thoughts. As always.
Enjoy the documentary (youtube) and Kodak, Fuji, … (if you’re out there) give it a thought and please just sometimes continue carrying extraordinary items like special papers, … within you product catalogue. As an acessory if you like. I know you do and I also know that you have to be competitive in a globalized world, but those are big decisions you make and it always effects someone.
I’m not expecting anyone to read what I just wrote. The flood of information is just one other thing that comes along with our digital times. If you do, thanks for taking the time; otherwise i can say: for me personally it was great to clear some thoughts that were running around in my head anyway.
I wonder if “Vinyl” survives the “Compact Disc” by the way. Enjoy!
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