FID (Film is Dead)

[P. J. Alling]

Partly it because as a society we are rich enough to keep things going 
for more than purely utilitarian purposes.  Since most of photography 
was always a luxury I don't think it will change.

John Sessoms wrote:
> From:
> Mark Cassino
>   
>> William Robb wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> You'all just don't seem to be getting it.
>>>       
>> OK - so when a superior technology comes along, the old technology 
>> dies off and is gone completely.
>>
>> Like horse drawn buggies (replaced by automobiles):
>>
>> http://www.liveryone.net/
>>
>> Bows and arrows (replaced by guns):
>>
>> http://www.huntersfriend.com/2007-Bow-Reviews/bow-specifications-charts-main.htm 
>>
>>
>> Hand woven fabric replaced by mass produced material:
>>
>> http://www.camillavalleyfarm.com/other/weavingguilds.htm
>>
>> Flint and steel (replaced by matches):
>>
>> http://www.survivalschool.com/products/fire_starting/Flint_&_Steel%20Kits.htm 
>>
>>
>> Oil lamps were replaced by candles which were replace by gas light 
>> which were replaced by electric light. (Good thing since oil lamps are 
>> a 10,000 year old technology.)
>>
>> http://www.oillampman.com/
>>
>> Books, movies, and radio - replaced by TV:
>>
>> Oh shoot, I guess the Internet has killed off all those plus TV...
>>
>> Folks don't ride horses to work any more (after all, its a 6,000 year 
>> old technology). But I schlepped by the KKK rally held in downtown 
>> Kalamazoo yesterday - and there were a couple dozen cops on horseback 
>> working the crowd. So the practical application of horses has not gone 
>> away.
>>
>> No one expects film to play the same role that it played in 1975. In 
>> the near future it will not be a mainstream technology. People who 
>> don't see an advantage to it, or who don't have the time, knowledge, 
>> or resources to utilize it - won't use it. People won't be able to pop 
>> by the local drug store and get film developed. But that's not the 
>> same as it being gone completely, totally, eradicated.
>>
>> Advancing technology limits old technology, makes it more expensive, 
>> drives it into specialized niches, but there is little historical 
>> evidence to suggest that old technologies die off and are eradicated, 
>> unless you start dealing in minutia like beta video tapes, cylinder 
>> records, 8 track tapes, etc - which are not really categories of 
>> technologies but rather very limited applications of them.  That's 
>> sort of like saying that steam powered locomotives disappeared so, of 
>> course, all railroads have gone.
>>
>> Some form of film will last forever. Or least least as long as flint 
>> and steel, oil lamps, and horses. And just as we once lived in a 
>> society were everyone saw horses first hand every day, and now they 
>> are a rarity, film will become a rarity. But it won't disappear.
>>
>> Cripes - there are still people taking daguerreotypes these days, 
>> mercury poisoning or no... 
>>     
>
> Well said.
>
> Steam powered locomotives haven't disappeared entirely, mostly just 
> removed to tourist railroads, where they're enjoying a revival of sorts 
> - at least it seems there are more working steam lines today than there 
> were 10 years ago. Maybe they were there all along, and the inter-net 
> just makes it easier for me to find them.
>
> And there's a guy down the road apiece from here who's making a good 
> living doing wet plate colloidian photography.
>
>   


-- 
cognoscenti: "Those who know"

cognesnotty: The stringy material that forms in the nasal passages of "Those who know."