On this dark grey and rainy morning it is hard not to feel some sadness about this statement,however it is not in any way a lamentable or tragic statement rather a celebration of a necessary and forward looking step that I believe is happening in any case and should be recognized and acknowledged in order for an extremely exciting new medium to be born and grow.
In the last month It has been confirmed to me that there is to be no more 10/8 polaroid made.In isolation this may not seem to be an event of such magnitude but it is important as it represents for me the only reason to use film over digital.
I have worked almost exclusively for the last 15 years on 10/8 enjoying the challenge of working with such a physically demanding piece of equipment,learning how to sometimes throw it around and treat it literally like a snapshot camera and at other times enjoy the formality and rigour that it forces on the sitter.It has been integral to my belief that I don't 'capture' a photograph,but 'create' it.It seemed to me it was the ultimate technical challenge,all other formats just paled in comparison.
Without polaroid,10/8 becomes almost impossible to work with in any practical and commercial way.
However in parallel to this I have always found equal pleasure in all the new forms of image creation,going right back to the linear distortions of the scitex machine in the mid1980s ,through hours of pleasure on the Quantel graphic Paintbox in the late 80s early 90s,followed quickly by the rise of Adobe Photoshop,the revolutionary 3d scanners, the simply stunning introduction of the mobile phone camera,and of course all this finding its very own global distribution network of the Internet allowing the dimensions of sound,movement and interactivity to be incorporated,which far outstrip the possibilities and reach of the one previously dominant form of image distribution, print.
Over the last 25 years I have watched, encouraged ,participated in and I hope in some way helped the birth of a completly new medium of communication.
My reason to write this piece is that in aknowledging this new medium and celebrating its' exsistance is to allow it to grow and forfil its amazing potential unhindered by having to masqurade as photography. On my Leica I have a setting for Video and a lead to download image and film onto my computer,surely this is no longer a camera in the sense we have understood photography.
It is a bit like having a T.V. set but selling it as a radio that ,by the way you can also see films on.It is no longer a radio! And all the better for that.
I am sure this piece will draw hostility partly because people will come rushing to the defense of Photography ,but I have no intention of attacking what has been one of the most powerful mediums and created some of the most beautiful images to fuel our dreams and uplift us as a people.It has shown us things we needed to see and been witness to visions of ourselves that we would never have seen with out it, it has literally bought light to where there was none.
Personally it has been my love,my hate and my passport into every and any situation I wanted to go into. It has been my reason to exist.
The world has changed since the invention of photography, which is a medium defined by a set of parameters from the zone system to the descisive moment. None of these parameters apply in the new medium ,it is therefore a different medium. The publics growing distrust and therefor dislike of photography is based around the issue of truth.My opinion is that central to this debate is that we are not being honest with ourselves to what medium we are actually using.
A total revolution in communication has happened . To meet the simply stunning possibilities of this new medium that allows us for the first time in our history as a species to communicate globally with each other with out it being shaped changed or manipulated for somebody to make financial profit from that communication,we must see it as what it really is .