People are just weird .....

[AcadieLibre]

I have been working with two galleries, one has been about 3 years the other I would hazard a guess maybe just over a year this time around the gallery circuit. I had a hard time trying to get galleries interested in selling photos outside of the annual Contact Photography festival here in Toronto. I thought well I can sell enough to get by on but was perplexed when the other galleries loved my work but would pass.

I just thought well they just are not into photography. I have made a huge switch and shoot a lot of film lately and why I am not posting that much, like I ever did lol, but that is beside the point. I have been back to some galleries that have passed on me before and once they found out I was shooting film there was a whole attitude change from a number of galleries. I am like perplexed when what I shot digitally is very close in B&W to what I shot in film but they look at it differently, just find it weird.

My 120 film photos are even looked at differently then the 35mm photos and unless I tell them they are not even aware of what is what but I mention 120 and you would think they just smoked something the difference on how I am treated is soooo different. I was told that some view film photos as different because it is not as reproducible, you also cannot shot until you get a good lucky shot, but how do they know I could be shooting 10 rolls every time I go out, also once I develop my negatives I use a scanner and upload the image to my computer and print from there so I can make as many copies as I do with digital (not that I mentioned it after they made their comments), I only went to film as I find it more challenging on a personal level and never looked at it as anymore artistic then digital but the mindset is bizarrely fascinating, who would have thunk it eh......

They do like to see the negative of the image but outside that the images I shoot with film are almost indistinguishable from my digital work and some are actually indistinguishable. Oh well if it makes them happy I will oblige ..... I also had a strict one off print of even my digital work so once a photo is printed I never, ever make a second copy so I assumed it would be looked at the same I think, but it is not, as the title says people are just weird ......

[Iguanasan]

Yes. Yes, they are.

[Bambi]

Yes. Yes, they are.

except for us of course.

I find that people have this view that because it's digital 'anyone' can do it. which is silly and wrong but there you go.

[Andrew]

Digital technology has opened the world of photography to millions upon millions of people. Whether it be for the family album, social networking, or personal gratification, MOST of today's users have zero understanding of the basics of photography. They don't need to. All of the technical aspects are built into the basic profile of today's memory driven cameras. Add to that the digital capabilities of a talented programmer with Photoshop and you've got a combination of technologies that can pump out "perfect" prints by the truck load. Portraits, NG level critter shots, stunning landscapes, magazine ads, obviously Photoshopped surreal fantasy images, whatever, all just a few clicks away. The people who are akin to the digital world know that. You don't have to be good because like a lot of other things in that digital world, it's just software, it's fixable. To many, photography is not a skill, it's an action. But make no mistake. Professional level photographers who do know what they are doing contribute to that downgrading of photography as a stand-alone trade. They more than any others rely heavily on the skills of a programmer and have no place to stand on-high and berate anyone in the new generation that is making it hard to make a living in the printed medium. Photography as some of us know it has been cheapened to the point that the generation that created it no longer values it.

The artsy types have never been known for logical thinking. Remember this is the same group that lauds the painting style of an elephant and a chimpanzee. Many new-age art genres introduced over the last hundred years have been a curious wonder to many of the observers. That’s what film is now. To the digitally raised generation film is magic, it’s voodoo to make wonderful photos by dropping paper into some stinky chemicals. And HEY, they even do it in the dark!!

If you really want to see how insane the artsy-fartsy group gets even with photography Google Andreas Gursky and take a look at what they can get some schmuck to fork over millions of dollars for. Is there just too much money in the world in the hands of people who really have nothing better to do with it? I’m not saying he’s a bad photographer but that much money for Where’s Waldo?? I’ve listened to the guy and he’s as flakey as his followers.

As for your being able to get some attention for your film shots that's great. I hope you do well. Film is chic at the moment. It's a backlash against exactly what I eluded to above. To me, within the digital group, film will separate the perception of your photographic skills from the kid next door with the DSLR P&S and a laptop. You see, they have begun to understand that in the cameras memory they can recreate what some of us know about the technicalities of making a picture. What they cannot even begin to understand and program into that camera on the shelf is your creative ability. What you see and produce on paper that makes their eyes linger on your photos just a little bit longer and they don’t know why they like it, but they do. Run with it and get as much as you can out there because others too will learn that film has the intrinsic enduring value and try to sell there as well. Good luck.

Sorry it got too long. I started this at 4 AM and there’s nothing better to do.

My 2 cents.

[AcadieLibre]

Well thought out response and I agree about Gursky, lost on what the world is thinking there, I do not knock him for being able to get rich but the people who pay for his work is another thing.