Reading Ch. 5

Ritchin says a lot of things, expresses many bold ideas and statements but most importantly has some amazing points that cut right to the heart of the practice that is photography. The term practice seems to greatly encapsulate that of which Ritchin believes has dissipated over the years. When one thinks of a “practice” they associate a task that provokes much work mentally and/or physically, they think of a task that requires much attention and repetition such as practicing for a sport. Most persons realize that the term “practice makes perfect” is not a fallacy for more often then not practicing football, painting, drawing, mathematics, photography, etc. results in better skills and overall results in that field.

With that said, it seems that Ritchin recognizes that the advancement of photography from analog to digital is mainly causing a bypass away from a magical practice. Time is being lost and gravely taken advantage of through the new process of digital; every person, place and thing can be altered and remastered in a matter of minutes.

Ritchin best expresses this when saying, “In previous conflicts, photographers would ship film once a week or so, often not knowing what the images looked like until months later. Uncertain of their success they had to work more intuitively and, one can argue, more expansively.”

This intuitive nature is what has been lost over the years through the digital transfer, even in my own work. I love analog with all my soul but the process is that for persons who have much more time than me. The process is much more expensive when considering the paper, film and developing, yet the process on the other hand all the more worth it for the magic of seeing an image appear upon the silver coated paper. The waiting, readjusting and waiting again is one of many aspects that make analog photography a practice. Digital takes a day process of developing and compresses it into minutes.

It seems as though most of an American’s daily life is focused upon the fantasy of minutes and time, a concept we’ve manipulated to suffocate the spontaneity out of our souls. I am equally distraught with our desire to speed the world along, why not take time to enjoy the planet we so quickly destroy?