The Art and Craft of Photography

Over the past I have written a few articles for the Ilford Instructor Newsletter. Last June Wendy Erickson asked me to write another. The focus of the issue was the future of digital and traditional photography in the classroom. I was to discuss where the craft of photography fit in today's photographic environment. I wanted to speak to several of the issues confronting the photo teacher when deciding whether to go digital or remain in traditional silver based photography I wanted to discuss the topic with the craft of both digital and silver photography in mind but from my own preference for the traditional silver photography. This may be the last Ilford Photo Instructor Newsletter. With the uncertainty at Ilford I doubt the Newsletter will appear again any time soon. Let's hope that doesn't happen to Ilford film and paper.

What really defines the art and craft of photography?

This question has been asked since the invention of photography. Photography has always been a technology driven art form. As new developments occurred, the look and feel of photographs changed: from Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes to albumen prints and tintypes; the transition from wet plate to dry plate negatives; the first roll film and George Eastman's Kodak (you push the button and we do the rest); Kodachrome, Cibachrome, the Zone System and 35mm to digital. Each technological advance has changed the way photographs are made and viewed.

Perhaps a better question is what defines photography? And what is its place in a college or high school curriculum? Sometimes regarded as a "dinosaur", I choose to work with large format cameras, with black and white film, making platinum and silver prints. This is as old school as you can get. However, at the same time I have a web site, use a digital camera to make records of places I have photographed, and scan prints to get them on the web or to make small proofs for editing and sequencing.

How do school programs cope and what do they base their choices on?

The first question to be asked is whether a program is being set up to train photographers as artists or as commercial photographers? Digital makes all the sense in the world for the commercial photographer. No film to process, the client can see the image immediately on the screen, separations can be done instantly, and the turn around time is almost nil. I have talked to commercial photographers who have cut their film budgets from thousands of dollars a year to zero by using the digital process. However, their costs for computers and digital backs have gone through the roof.

If the program is set up to train photographers as artists, then the discipline and craft required for silver based photography are necessary. We train painters and sculptures as artists so why not photographers? The drawbacks for teaching silver photography as an art form are many. The cost of film has risen in the last few years because demand has gone down. The availability of certain films has diminished, research and development in black and white has all but stopped, and black and white papers are getting harder and harder to find.

Photography is about vision and seeing. What we choose to point the camera at is far more important than the particular camera we use. The assignments we give to students to work on should challenge and expand this idea of seeing and story telling. The old Chinese proverb that a picture is worth a thousand words is still true. When we give students an assignment that requires a roll of film, it should take the same effort as writing a 24 or 36 thousand word essay. Does it matter whether that essay is written on a computer or typewriter or with pen and ink?

When a member of the audience looks at a photograph, does it matter if it was made on a digital camera; a 12x20 view camera or a plastic or pinhole camera? It shouldn't. The image should communicate something from the photographer to the audience. For me this is the art of photography.

The craft of photography is something else. In my own work I break the image making process into two parts, the process and the product. Both are important. I have to enjoy the process of making the image as well as the product that is displayed on the wall on in a book. I have made a conscious choice to work with large format cameras, black and white negative materials and the silver or platinum/palladium processes because these give my prints the voice I wish them to have and I enjoy working with the process. I believe that process and product should be important in any curriculum. Students must master the craft no matter which style of photography they practice. Both silver and digital have their own set of demands technical and aesthetic. These should be taught to foster the final image that is presented to an audience.

In 1996, I was invited to begin the Photography Program at The Waterford School in Sandy, Utah. I designed it as a five-year program beginning in the 8th Grade. Every Class VIII student takes photography as part of the art curriculum. They spend a term on basic camera handling, composition and printing. In Class IX they can choose to take a full year of photography reviewing camera basics, processing basics, and refined printing techniques. Class X Photography is a series of term-long classes: Studio, View Camera and Craft. Class XI and XII take AP Photography, resulting in a portfolio of fifteen exhibition prints which are presented at their Senior Show.

The Waterford Photography Program was set up as an equal part of the Art Department along with Painting, Drawing and Sculpture. The department is a foundations-based program. By that I mean techniques of how to hold a brush, how to center a pot, and how to properly expose and develop film are the foundations for everything else. The Photography Program is strongly based on the craft and aesthetics of silver based photography. At Waterford, we are teaching Photography as an art form.

The question of where digital fits in to the program is one we have wrestled with for several years.

We examined the pros and cons of converting our Class VIII photography program into a digital program. Advantages included the immediate results that students could see on their computer screen. Assignments on Frame or Vantage Point would be immediately accessible without the problems of learning to make a silver print from a negative. Most Class VIII students at Waterford are already computer literate and many have had some experience with digital photography on their own. However, we decided to keep Class VIII Photography based in the darkroom because of the "WOW" factor. There still is something magic about seeing the image appear out of the developer. Also, learning to make a good silver print requires a small amount of discipline, which Class VIII students themselves need to develop.

We experimented with digital photography in the AP Program as part of a Historic Process term. Students made negatives with cameras ranging from 35mm to 4x5 and then worked in Photoshop to make digital negatives for alternative printing. It was moderately successful but ultimately an unsatisfactory answer to where digital fit into the Waterford Photography Program.

Currently our answer is to place a one term digital class in the junior year of the AP Photo Program. It covers digital capture and digital out put. The students are exposed to entirely new issues of craft, such as color management, color balance, printer and monitor balance, and different storage cards. The program has several digital cameras and very few of them use the same storage media. The program has several computers and printers and this equipment changes almost every year.

This highlights the real issue of digital photography in secondary schools. The digital world is based on planned obsolescence.

The digital camera you buy today, like a computer, is worth half as much when you get it home and it makes a fine paper weight in three years or less. How do you budget for constant replacement of equipment? Not only cameras, but printers, computers and programs have to be upgraded every year at least. It is a financial nightmare for schools trying to run a digital program. Digital means 'the latest" or the "newest". It is impossible to keep up.

In silver based photography, my 50-year-old Leica and 30-year-old 8x10 Deardorff still use FP4+ and work as well as the operator on any given day. The worry for silver based programs is simply this: How long will the materials be available and how long will they be affordable? In the silver world, the consumable items are film, paper and chemistry. Cameras, lenses, enlargers and darkrooms last for years (with proper maintenance). Ilford has committed to continuing to make traditional silver products. But as the demand dies down how long will these products continue to be affordable? Delta 400 35mm film is about $4 a roll currently. How many photo programs would continue to use this fine film if it were $10 or $12 a roll? How could students or programs afford it?

As the price of the consumable silver products goes up the appeal of digital will also increase. The hidden cost for the digital program is the constantly changing hardware. Floppy disks of any size are long gone, and CD's are following quickly. How many different media storage cards are out there now? How many will there be in the future? How quickly do new mega pixel cameras come on the market?

The craft of silver based photography is a known entity. Exposure, development, good printing techniques, proper display and storage are all essentials for which clear guidelines can be taught. The craft for digital photography is computer based. As the program and materials evolve, constantly changing knowledge will be necessary for keeping up with the technology.

Learning the craft of photography, how to make an image visible and strong are essential. Be it silver or digital, color or platinum, the image has to speak. It is the craft of making that image that gives it the vocabulary and grammar to make it understandable. It is the idea or vision that brings it to life.

Tillman Crane is currently working on his book on Scotland due out in 2005. He continues to work as a consultant for the Waterford School Photography Program. He teaches workshops out of his studio in Camden, Maine, and in Scotland and England. He is available for private tutorials or workshops. Please visit www.tillmancrane.com for more information.