Chemical Photography >> Dead

Gone are the years where I used to develop film in a dark room. I recall the excitement of buying film, shooting it, reeling the film in a dark room, and proceeding to meticulously develop it with measurements of chemicals and pure enthusiasm. Timers indicating the moment of truth. Yes, the unveiling of the film from the canister. All would be revealed once the film, held up against the light, exposed the images to my sight. To love or to hate? Sometimes one or the other or sometimes both! But that´s the path of the photographer... to learn and experiment and fine tune one´s art.

No doubt, it is a great exaggeration on my part to state chemical photography is dead. It´s not really dead of course, it´s just that photography and the instruments utilized to photograph have indeed evolved over time. Unfortunately, the film and chemical industry have stagnated and failed to innovate. Rather, the camera itself has been designed in such a way to accomplish several goals. For example, people no longer need to buy film, nor do they have to incur the cost of processing film. The images taken with a digital camera can be viewed instantly. Which means, you are able to decide in that moment if you like what you see. Remember when you only had 36 frames to shoot? You had to know when to take a picture. Tough luck if you ran out of film!  

Check out tomorrow´s post to find out where photography and innovation are heading...