An interesting interview with Stephen Shore

[Iron Flatline]

Some of you may find this interesting, esp. his comments about how digital has freed up the creative process...

Conscientious

 

[TheLostPhotographer]

Nice interview. Thanks for the link.

Stephen Shore is undoubtedly a photographer I look up to. I think the digital/film thing will go round and around for ages yet until we all realise that it's actually totally irrelevant. They are Two very different media.

The first answer, and particularly this line:

I knew I couldn't economize by only taking pictures that I knew would be good – that would simply lead to boring, safe images. But, I could decide what I really wanted to photograph and how I wanted to structure the picture. This was a powerful learning experience.

is the most important to my way of thinking.

Going with the instinctive, no cost to consider, free will of digital is great, but unless you've really thought long and hard about what makes the photograph you're after, you'll never get it.

When I'm shooting film I take a very considered view of a subject. Absorb myself in the environment before I even look through the viewfinder. Shooting digital I snap away like there's no tomorrow. The results are similar to a certain extent, but the film shots somehow have more depth and meaning.

I think they are Two very different media. No-one can learn to take shots like some of Stephen Shore's LF film stuff by purely shooting digital. The parameters of film force you to consider the world you're looking at far more deeply. A digital education alone will never do that.

 

[craig]

Big up on the link. Thought provoking for sure. Have to say that I agree with a lot of what he says.

Love & Bass