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Photography can be one of the most accurate "time-machine"
over other kind of archival documentation. |
This is something I am not, to be a collector because accumulating things that I will never further use is not my thing! Take, for example, books. During all my modest (intellectual!) life, I have always been cheering to read new books, magazines, newspapers, etc. But I won’t invest to a personal library considering the obvious ecliptic of my various choices of subjects. Therefore, since a very young age, I am found of scholar or public libraries that are so full of different written opportunities to discover.
Working in the photographic business has been a good way to try several camera models and different photo techniques. And I did as an in-house or specialized news photographer, as an agent for camera gear compagnies, even as a photographic teacher or monitor. Almost all camera models have an interesting and different perspective on how to use them. This differentiation is forcing you to invest on a learning curve and to try getting pictures on your taste if possible. What this phenomenon of collecting is teaching us? First, I would mention modesty on a technical and creative points of view because it is up to us to be able to extract the real potential of a camera model even for the simple ones.
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Paper has been the favorite photographic picture support
with a very good potential longevity. |
Secondly, it emphasizes how the race to upgrade the photographic tool is never ended and how it is hard to follow this pace over the years. The big bang of migrating from the traditional analog photography to the digital era is a strong illustration of the technical photographic advancement that have changed many strong but past habits among photographers. Yes, you can ask you about the necessity to be involved in that continuous race, but we are always surprised that new technologies will enhance our creativity to new frontiers like, for example, the availability and ease to succeed using photography in low light condition.
Thirdly, there is also an esthetic view about photographic devices that you cannot ignore. Those "fashion" trends are present in our society for decades if not centuries. Man-made or designed objects are a true cultural expression of our human civilization. They represent artefacts that can explain the structure and organization of our living world especially for those in the future that will be tempting to understand our way of life.
If we have been in the past impenitent collectors in face of this world, we are now frenetic consumers that are literally creating a horrendous amount of wasted material that eventually pollute our fragile surrounding. By having no real long-term respect for thing that have initially fulfill our ephemeral desires, we are destroying our own evolution for an uncertain and none-definite future. Billions of cameras (as for electronic devices) have been discarded over the decades (especially the most recent ones) for many futile reasons outside our true needs.
History is often about a heritage of many things but the lack of historical interest in our present world could be scaring at a point that it may questioning the longevity of this human civilization. We have to pay respect of our past and invest more in collecting objects and representations that illustrate our historical path. And photography is part of it...
