Since owning my lovely Bronica SQ camera, and embarking on a new side-project of basic portraiture, I've had at least three conversations along the lines of 'why is this better?' from people who find it a bizarre piece of kit to drag around in the 21st Century.
Indeed, the camera directly contends with the trajectory of modern camera technology, and products in general; it's huge, heavy, expensive, and quite removed from the 'instantaneous' or easy when it comes to capturing that decisive moment.
So, why indeed. Well, I could argue its the crop. There's something appealing about a square format photograph, solidly framed by the remaining negative. I could say it's the superior lens quality which captures shadows/highlights, sharpness and blur in the way that digital couldn't, or any of those other purist ideas that get thrown around most often... that for the most part are probably nonsense.
I would argue that the high-end digital camera market could probably replicate a lot of these things. Heck, your mobile phone could probably replicate a lot of these things. You could throw a photograph into Lightroom, crop the image square and stick some borders in, and most people would be none the wiser.
It's not really a matter of quality, but rather a matter of craft. When I'm shooting 35mm on my digital camera, I'm safe in the knowledge that if someone is blinking or I've blurred the shot, I can easily take more... in fact I can take thousands more. If you're shooting with a Bronica SQ, everything is manual, and thus it's in your hands. Light readings have to be taken with a separate light meter, your photographs have to be composed, focused and accurately exposed by your hand alone... and if you have the means, don't even get me started on developing film.
This might sound laborious, but it creates a sense of worth to every photograph you successfully make. The below images aren't fleeting snapshots, they're consciously arranged, and there's a sense of victory when they come out right.
So, much like the guy toiling in his garage to build a bookcase rather than dropping £40 at IKEA, the traditional means of image making, and particularly medium to large format photography, still retains a degree of skill and sense of reward, that I don't believe digital, by its very nature, is capable of contending with.
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| Self-portrait |
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| My friend David at the coffee house, Reading |
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| Little brother, Dutty, at Artigianos Wine Bar, Reading |
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| Ben |
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| Alex |
