Photosynthesis is cool
Last Friday I read a micro-lecture on photography at Moscow-based “Kapusta” (”Cabbage”) club (here’s the Facebook page in Russian). My theme was “Synthesis in photography”, because I think that this is what’s happening now and this is cool.
In 2009, there are as many photographers as cameras. One can’t often tell an amateur from a pro. And from this pool of people, equipment and ideas, something new is being brewed.
New Camera Standards: Micro 4/3
It’s official, as camera producers support this trend by merging products from different niches, creating new species. Like Micro 4/3, currently represented by Panasonic and Olympus:
At one hand, consumers who want to get pro’er, but are somehow scared by DSLR’s large size and the whole mess with professional gear, get an advanced camera allowing them to use interchangeable lenses to get better picture and learn more, still looking nice and shiny. At the other, professionals, tired of DSLR’s that don’t fit into their pockets or purses for everyday careless shooting, finally get a, well, point-and-shoot, or rather, “put on your favourite lens-point-and-shoot” camera.
“Everyday” Medium Format DSLR
Same thing happens in heavier weights with the upcoming arrival of Leica S2, a medium-format DSLR. Now we can have all those megapixels, too heavy to carry out from studio into everyday life before, to shoot our kitty on the sofa or our boy/girlfriend in front of Eiffel tower.
Photo+Video
One more thing I find significant: the photography and video synthesis.
If this photo by Greg Williams (click here for the hi-res version) were published on a glossy magazine spread, you’d never say that it was taken with a video camera. Yet, it is:
Red One, the first available on the range of Red cameras, is designed to shoot films, but more and more photographers use stills from Red footage as “normal” photographs. Another example is Bruce and Emma Willis photoshoot for W Magazine.
From the opposite side, DLSR’s with HD video feature have arrived, starting with Canon 5D Mark II.
Now tru photographers have a possibility to play with video, using their favourite L-lenses and therefore getting a better picture than on a regular HD video camera. A huge contribution to the rather new “long photo” genre. Well, not so brand new, as Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests have explored this territory already back in the 1960’s, but still without strict definition, what causes discussions like those on Flickr after they introduced the video feature.
Here’s a good example what I think a real long photo is:
Long Water from endico on Vimeo.
Genre Synthesis
As for the genre synthesis, I showed an example from my own work: a project called “Lomostudio“.
Conclusion
In July I saw this work by Giacomo Balla at the Futurists exhibition in Tate Modern:
I was stunned by the fact that this picture, painted in 1912, is a pure lomographic image. Futurists were not afraid of experimenting, making a statement of their art and, like this, they created a new language in art. My sense of coolhunting tells me that now is the time for photography to make a similar move.
Tags: action sampler, art, canon, futurism, greg williams, hd, lecture, leica, lomography, long photo, lumix, medium format, olympus, panasonic, pen, point-and-shoot, red, studio, video