All for nothing?

Hi…how you doing?

Something for you out of left-field…do you ever get totally random thoughts or concepts that flip you out?

Let me backtrack a bit. If you read my last blog, you would be aware that I recently shot what I expect to be my last wedding. As part of that shoot I decided I would break out the Bronica and take a couple of film portraits. As of my last post I hadn’t processed the film. I have now and I am totally stoked with the outcome…see below.

It was when I was handling the negatives that I had my epiphany…unless a digital photograph is printed it doesn’t actually exist. Yeah, I know…a biggy hey? Think about it. There is nothing ‘real’ about a digital image…it doesn’t ‘exist’.

When you take a photograph using film there is a physical entity…it is tangible, it is real. A digital image starts as light…converted to electrical signals which are then converted and stored as 1s and 0s. If you were able to look at the 1s and 0s they would have no resemblance to the scene you photographed. I’m pretty sure no-one could look at the collection of numbers and tell you what the picture is of. The photograph you took doesn’t exist. Unless you print it. Then there is a physical representation of your 1s and 0s. A very good argument for printing your photographs.

This did my head in when the thought first entered my head. I have at least 20 years of work of which maybe 90% doesn’t exist. I have been paid for producing nothing for 20 years…lol.

Trippy hey?

Now that I have messed with your head…here are a few images (that don’t actually exist) from a walk around our garden.

A quick update on Betty…I can’t get her repaired until August at the earliest! This got me thinking. What would have happened if she wasn’t drivable? I couldn’t get by without a vehicle for 6 months. Consequently I have updated my insurance cover to include the use of a hire car should the unthinkable happen. And I wasn’t able to fix the window washer so I have to resort to a spray bottle for the next 6 months.

Ok, I’ve waffled on long enough.

Catch you next time.