snappy~speak photo

The backlash and growing animosity toward digital photography, as opposed to film photography, is troubling to me. I’m encountering more and more people who label digital photographers as not ‘real’ photographers. As cheats who don’t know what ‘real’ photography is. Discrediting their work as frivolous. Invaluable.
As artists, we need to be careful not to say that one art form is the ‘right’ way to do art. Truth is, there’s not one ‘right’ way to do art. It’s creative, it’s diverse, it’s born in freedom.

Your art is what you want it to be. It’s what you make it. It’s subjective. It’s your own. To propose that film photographers are superior to digital photographers is going too far. It’s equivalent to saying, “Henceforth, illustration is the supreme way to express oneself. But not just any illustration, only charcoal. Charcoal illustrators are the only real artists, and every other medium is rubbish”. It’s absurd to suggest that any one medium is THE superior form.

Hear me when I say this, I have the utmost respect for film photography and its photographers. I admire the history of film and its distinct look. I shoot film from time to time with good results, but I prefer to shoot digitally. I shoot mindfully and intentionally, utilizing my technical skills with every shot. I’m a good photographer and I like my work. I consistently strive to improve my technique and am fully aware that I can always be better. I don’t have to shoot film exclusively to be a legitimate photographer. I already am one.

My overall point is this: art is a beautiful form of expression. It’s liberating. It’s therapeutic. It’s extremely diverse. Its creators are diverse. We seek art, in our preferred medium, for many different reasons. But they’re our reasons. We own them. To tear down an entire art form, e.g. digital photography, is to tear down an entire population of artists. And this saddens me. My motto on this matter is ‘Share the Road: There’s Room for All of Us’.