I just can’t share these pictures without getting into some philosophy regarding cameras and film. I caught a conversation in a small breakfast place while in Carmel where some guy was making a comment about how a 35mm Leica is a “real” camera. This struck me as a bit ridiculous, and a bit ironic since I had both my dSLR and medium format cameras on me at the time. Can you really say that digital photographs are inferior to 35mm? I was tempted to sarcastically quip that 35mm is clearly inferior to 120/220 just to make a point.
Nothing in photography is ever replaced and the new technology is never any less real than the older stuff. While I am sad that Polaroid will no longer be producing its famous instant film, it only serves as a reminder of how unique that Polaroid experience is. Nothing can replace that. 8×10, 4×5, 120/220, 35mm – they are all still useful and they all have their fanatics. I’ve even seen some contemporary work by people using pinhole cameras that they built themselves. There are so many obvious innovations and subtle nuances in the different equipment available to making photographs. It’s these mechanics of all the formats that produce different kinds of pictures by virtue of the limitations.
Art is created in confines of structure, not in its absence.
These are some of the pictures from my first successfully developed roll of 120 film (and a picture of my Hasselblad, taken, ironically, with my dSLR).