The Analog Line - Part Seven - Whoville

As to the question of who can practise analog photography we can answer by pointing you to the world of 1980. Everyone you knew then could - and if they are still alive they can now. They might not be able to do it with the facility or felicity of that time, but it's still open to them. As for the question of who should choose it, you have to look back on the previous Analog Line columns. a. If you are a photographer who can please yourself as to what you do and have the character to realise that - well, you can be a great analog worker. You'll have your failures, but as you are your own boss, these can be forgiven. If you're wise you'll learn and not repeat them. This happy position is also involved with time. You'll need to be in control of your own schedule as it will inevitably be a slower one than that of the digital worker. The slower pace of delivery may make you appreciate the beauty of what you've done more. b. Conversely, if you are working to someone else's schedule and they are constantly tightening it, analog is a difficult choice. You won't have the backup of a wet-negative press darkroom to get a fast reportage picture ready. Heck, even the newspapers don't have those places any more. If you've got to get an image onto the net or into someone's hands right now, do it digitally. If there is no good way to get a physical print to someone - distance, security, cost, etc. - choose digital for capture and delivery. As maddening as the internet can be for disinformation, it can bypass a lot of obstacles. c. If you want to create beauty with a historic feel, sometimes the best way is to use historic processes. The wet-plate enthusiasts do just this and there are some dodges that they can employ that reduce the historic hazards of their processes. Of course, if you want to poison yourself or explode your house this can still be done but it will take a lot more effort. Historical photo re-enactors are a whole 'another world. d. If you are a person who treats photography as an extremely casual thing - literally picking up a camera twice a year and holding it briefly in front of an eye - you will have a far better chance of success with analog than digital. No batteries to go flat - no chargers to fin - nothing but a roll of film per year and when it's done you pop it into the lab and they do the rest. Don't laugh, enthusiast. There are such people and all they need is a disposable cardboard camera to be happy. They are only visual creatures in small, fuzzy patches. e. If you are a technical field or the sort of person who starches and adjusts the floor mats on your 1967 Humber Super Snipe on a regular schedule, you'll like analog photography - with the best of the historic cameras. The more complex, the better. Hunt out a Linhof Master Technika and try to collect all the lenses. Learn to file and calibrate your own cams. I did. Yep. Linhof calibration target and all. One of those jobs that cannot be done, so you go ahead and do it. Again, don't laugh at the person who derives pride and pleasure from operating complex and/or historic machinery well. All over the state, there are farmers nursing 1920's oil engines back to vigorous life and loving it.