Digital stupid?
October 26th, 2023
Bellevue, WA
What a hot take! I understand where Mr. Araki is coming from in terms of how I feel when I shoot film photos, but I don't fully agree with him here about the total dismerits of digital images. I'd like to think of film and digital as seperate mediums that somehow look similar when presented to an audience. How many people out there can tell what is a photo shot on film and what is shot on CCD sensor based on a printed image? To me the fun and emotion of shooting on silver halide is the experience itself. And that is only for myself to experience as it's not something that can be shared or properly expressed via the final image.
Image from www.switch-pub.co.jp/
… digital cameras are for stupid people. Pictures taken by a digital camera only show the instant moment. A digital camera copies the presence of reality. What you see is what you get. However, there may be something added to the frame during the process of developing or printing when it comes to gelatin silver print. There could be sentimental feelings in those photographs. This kind of “mysterious secret” goes into the process of using a film camera. It is humane, so it is appropriate for photographic expression. I do not feel the body temperature of the subject in digital image. There is no physicality. A digital camera turns a photographer into a robot, with no feeling.
― Nobuyoshi Araki excerpt from Crossing Boundaries, an interview with Nobuyoshi Araki (2011)(NSFW)
References
From an interveiew in Trans Asia Photography Crossing Boundaries, an interview with Nobuyoshi Araki (2011)(NSFW) by Hyewon Yi