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Rambling With Resnick
A B&W Backlash
With digital coming on strong, our darkrooms may be the next killer appBy Mason Resnick
Many years ago, when I was in my early teens, my parents took me on a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennissee. One of the tourist shops engraved whatever you wanted onto wood plaques. My parents had one made for me. It said Mason's Retreat. I think they intended it to be put in my room. When we got home with it, I decided that my darkroom would be a far more appropriate place. So, there it stayed. And it's true: the darkroom was--and still is--a safe sanctuary where I can immerse myself in my craft. There is no stress in the darkroom, because I'm in control of everything that happens there.
I've moved my darkroom several times since then, and that wooden plaque has always been moved with it. Right now the plaque sits on a shelf directly above my enlarger.
I bring up this snippet from my wonder years to drive home a point: the headlong rush of progress in digital imaging innovations is starting to create an interesting, unintended consequence: more and more people are rediscovering the craft and creativity of Black and White photography--or discovering it for the first time. It seems like every day I get email from someone who has never tried developing their own B&W photos and wants to know how, or from someone who is returning to the darkroom after an absence of ten, 15 or more years.
Evidence of a movement
In late March I was honored to be the moderator of a chat (read the transcript) with George Schaub, author of the book The Digital Darkroom: Black & White Techniques in Photoshop, as part of my full-time job with PhotoHighway. We have been running chats since October; this one had more people in the chat room than any previous session, which says something powerful about the rising level of interest in B&W.
Another example of the rising interest in what we do: Even the New York Institute of Photography has rediscovered B&W--they recently started a "Return to Black and White" series on their web site, which is visited by millions every month. With their permission, the first article in the series is reprinted elsewhere in B&W World. (By the way, I must take a moment to thank them for ending the article with a wonderful plug for Black & White World!)
Hiding our heads in the sand?
So what does all of this mean? Is the B&W Backlash a Luddite movement--a refusal to accept the reality that we are living in a digital world? While I'm sure some do feel that way, I believe most do not. Look at how much B&W photography is being used now in advertising, as well as on MTV. George Schaub in his chat said we should look at both digital and darkroom printing as two separate, but equally valid, forms of creative expression, as different as lithography is to silkscreening.
With more B&W images out there, curiosity is building: how can I do that myself?
Digital is here to stay and, in fact, is going to be the engine that drives more interest in photography in general. I was recently at a meeting of the PMDA (Photographic Manufacturers and Distributors Association). It was dot-com night, and all of the speakers on the dias talked about digital imaging, online albuming, selling digital cameras, printing photographs via web sites, etc. We spoke of new trends and survey results pointing to an era of unprecedented growth in the photo industry. (No secrets here--everything I've just described has been announced if not already available.)
Photography is reinventing itself
For instance, one of the speakers mentioned a survey where cell phone users were asked what features they'd like to see added to their cell phones. Around 60% said they wanted to read their email on their cell phones. Guess what the number two answer was--with 52% saying yes? People want to send and receive photographs on their cell phones! It's already happening in Japan, where studens are beaming pictures across classrooms and across town. Sure the quality is lousy by silver halide standards, but so what? It's getting a new generation excited about photography in a new way.
In the not-too-distant future, people will be taking digital pictures with their Palm Pilots and their Casio Watches (Dick Tracey lives!), send them to their distant relatives in an instant, create screen savers of their children and send them to their mothers (who just signed up with AOL and are just figuring out how to work the CAPS LOCK key). Or, they'll have their 4 megapixel snapshot cameras and make prints on their desktops that will look no different from the prints they used to get from the local one-hour lab, which closed up because now you can have your film developed in 2 minutes using a chemical-free (!) vending machine at the local supermarket and get high-resolution images on a CD.
A bigger pie
All of these changes are already driving people to take more pictures. While digital developments may be driving increased involvement in photography, the speakers at the PMDA meeting all agreed that this growth is not limited to digital: traditional photography is getting a big boost which will only get bigger.
Which brings us back to Mason's Retreat: more people, faced with a growing, overwhelming selection of image capture, storage, distribution and output choices, are going to want a place to get away from it all, where they are in control, where they can create with their hands--not through a mousy intermediary--and where image quality reigns supreme. And that's why there's a B&W Backlash which I have a felling will grow as interest and excitement about digital photography grows.
And when they come, we--the people who never abandoned B&W--will be here, with open arms.
About the author: Mason Resnick is the editor and publisher of Black & White World and the community webmaster of PhotoHighway.Com, can't decide if he wants a Kodak Palm Pilot camera attachment or the Casio Camera Watch. You can reach him at bwworld@mindspring.com.