[LargeFormat] The Big Digit

[Marco Milazzo]

Uncle Dick,

About 1870, prepared oil paints  began to be available to artists, freeing
them from the need to make their own paints.
Did the quality of oil paintings suddenly improve?    Nope.   Painting
became more convenient, but as today, painters continued to be divided into
the few "good" and the many . . . well, "not as good."

Art resides in the eyes, hearts and minds of artists, not in their tools or
their processes.  Wasn't in someone on this list who said that Jerry
Ulesman's "handmade" montages have never been surpassed, even though these
days, any kid with Photoshop can produce them?

I expect that eventually, digits will replace most film and chemicals
processes, but technology will not of itself, replace the art and images of
the thinking, feeling photographer.

When I look at a beautiful picture by Julia Margaret Cameron or Eugene
Atget, I never think "What an antique!"  And I never wonder what kind of
camera they used, except as an afterthought -- after I've thought, "How
beautiful!"  or "How touching.!"

Knickerless Nickleby

(Marco of El Paso del Norte, Tejas)