|
A digital
camera is more than a portable, glorified scanner.
A camera is something
quite different.
As a photographer for
over 30 years, I am very excited by the possibilities of direct
digital images and the Casio QV-100 camera that I now own.
|
This camera allows me to do things that were impossible before.
|
Digital technology leaves much
to be desired at this point in its development:
- narrow
tonal range
- excessively high contrast
- colors are not true
- slow film speed
- coarse resolution
|
A traditional silver
image (film and paper) produces a much higher quality picture. It
may be 20 or 50 years before digital photography can compete with
a sliver image at a comparable price.
So why am I so excited?
The reason is simple. This camera allows me to do things that were
impossible before.
|
Crossing the
Trent River
at Twilight.
Click
to see animation >>
|
But before I go into that,
let me explain about the power of the photographic image.
The Power of Photography
A photograph is not great because
of its technical qualities. While tonal range and good resolution are
desirable, many of the finest photographs are grainy and far from perfect.
Cartier-Bresson, who many
think was the best of all photographers, started using a 35mm camera (when
few others did) not because of its technical qualities but because of
its portability and versatility.
The 35mm camera allowed him
to take spontaneous pictures which captured life in its full-blooded movement.
The digital camera allows flexibility, instant images and picture possibilities
that did not exist earlier.
![[ Shadows and Light ]](gfx/tshdow04.jpg)
|
![[ Lights and Shadow ]](gfx/tshdow03.jpg) |
| Click
to see larger image. |
|
Since there is essentially
no film cost, the digital camera allows you to shoot whimsically
over and over until you get it right. The cost never enters into
your thinking.
The real-time visual
image which shows you almost exactly what you are getting, is a
photographer's dream. You see the picture in color on an LCD screen
before you take it and also immediately after you take it.
|
You can shoot for ten minutes,
review what you just shot, then shoot for another ten minutes. This immediate
feedback makes the digital camera a different kind of beast.
|
Also you can turn the
lens around 180 degrees so that you can take self -portraits and
see accurately what you will get at the same time.
Again this was impossible
before.
|
The Artiste,
Rick Doble, Self-portrait |
Want to see quick blow-ups
of the pictures? Just plug the camera into a TV or VCR connected to a
TV and browse through the images on the TV
Exhibitionists of the World:
Display
Further
exploration of
light & shadow with a little
self-exploration thrown in. |
Want to exhibit
your work?
Just put these pictures
directly on the Internet which is the greatest gallery imaginable
for a photographer.
The gallery is accessible
to anyone in the world who has an Internet connection, 24 hours
a day at very little cost. For computer literate people, the digital
camera is much less expensive, more spontaneous, easier to work
with and easier to exhibit.
|
For those of us who have gotten
tired of the road (the rut?) that academic photography has taken, the
black and white overworked images of super fine resolution and large format,
the digital camera brings photography back to life, back into the streets.
All that and it's cheaper,
too
|
In addition, contemporary
photographers have become overly concerned with the price of their
photographs not the power of what they have to offer. Digital images
do not have the same commercial value which in our materialistic
age means they have less value.
I welcome an art
which takes us away from dollars.
|
 |
But don't worry; if the art
is truly great, galleries will find a way to attach a price tag to it.
I feel that the deepest promise of still photography is a captured image
of pulsing life. Also still photography can and should add to and extend
the tradition of fine art. The digital camera and digital photography
may bring us back our senses.
Preservation
A principle concern of contemporary
academic photography has been the length of time that a photographic image
will last. Black and white photos have a much longer life that color images
so many schools and museums rejected color photography.
However, digital photography
has, essentially, an infinite life because information about the image
is saved on a computer disk not the image itself. While color monitors
may fade, the computer file can always be copied onto a disk or put on
a CDROM and then displayed on a new color monitor.
![[ Snowflakes are Falling on the Internet ]](gfx/snowanax.gif)
|
Would You
Like to
Know More?
|
Snowflakes
are falling on the internet...
The
German zine, Digital
MIRROR had this to say about RIck Doble's Web site:
"Der
InternetkYnstler Rick Doble hat eine Serie seiner Arbeiten speziell
fYr die online PrSsentation aufbereitet.
In
drei 'RSumen' zeigt er digitale Fotografien und Computergrafik.
Essays Yber Kunst im digitalen Zeitalter geben einen Einblick Yber
seinen kYnstlerischen Ansatz."
Editor's
Note:
Most of the Staff at Scrape speaks German, the rest don't know the
language, but think umlauts are
cool.
|
|
|
