Viewpoint
Some of the mega-trends influencing today’s photographic techniques highlight humans’ love of hard copy
The organisers of September’s Photokina, photography’s most significant trade fair, identified 10 trends which are shaping photography. Some are obvious, such as the rise of mirrorless cameras, algorithms, 4K video and ever-higher shutter and frame speeds, but two caught my attention.
First, they cited the rise of instant imaging and popularity of Fujifilm's Instax film and (a re-born) Polaroid. That the only copy of a photo can develop in your hand is ‘so cool’ in their words. Second, they cited the enjoyment of the printed image: ‘An ever-increasing number of photographers are asking “What do I do with my especially good images?”’
The urge to print them will be music to the ears of Kodak and Fujifilm for whom, prior to the advent of digital, photo paper was big business. The primary reason they wanted the APS film format of 1985 to succeed 35mm was that it had a larger default print size, so consumers would buy more paper each time a film was printed.
These mega-trends highlight the intangible and lasting importance of a physical image, as opposed to an evanescent digital one: the impression left on the viewer by something they can touch, feel, look at many times, pass on and admire. Ever since the first cave painting, humans have liked hard copy. The e-reader has not replaced the book.
Recent comments by the eminent Italian-American photographer Tony Vaccaro underline this. One of the world’s most experienced and able war, fashion and portrait photographers, he still shoots film. He said that his personally designed darkroom is considered the best in New York: 220ft2 with four enlargers. It is central to his continuing work at 95 years old. ‘ These days my studio staff print for me in my darkroom after I have made the first print. I dictate exposure times, blocking techniques, chemical bath times and chemical bath warm spots that they must “massage”.’
Central to photography is both the quality of the negative or the raw file, and the print. The print is not only tangible but also more archivally permanent than an electronic image. When you look at a print you see some new aspect of it each time. If a photo is an ‘especially good image’ you can live with it on your wall. If an image matters, we want to show it to others for more than a moment. Photokina’s inclusion of the renaissance of the print and film/print-based technology as mega-trends should not surprise us: neither should the investment that someone as significant a photographer as Vaccaro still makes in the printed image.