Originally Published on Kapitol Photography
Who am I as a Millenial Photographer?
My generation, the iGeneration, has been born with hands, feet, eyes, ears, and a USB port.
There are only a few memories that I can think back to when computers weren’t such a predominant part of life. I remember growing up with Legos, GI Joes, and Ninja Turtles that weren’t played on a screen, but with your hands. A manhunt was a child’s game of hiding and seek, not a Googled search or a nightly news brief.
As a photographer and millennial, I often feel like I straddle two worlds.
I’m part of the last generation that knew of, and how to use analog devices — cameras that used film, record players, and cassette tapes, but also the first generation born into the digital age, and capable of deftly navigating computers and handheld devices.
The iGeneration of the New Millenium
Everywhere is a device to capture things or attention and I find myself “growing up” with cellphones, iPods, and PDAs in people’s hands everywhere I look.
When, at the first game of the World Series between the Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies recently, one of my first observations was the absurd amount of cell phone cameras and point & shoot cameras capturing everything. It seemed that everyone preferred looking through a lens at the game rather than with their eyes, documenting the Sox’ victory in a static number of 1s & 0s of Binary Code that would later be emailed to everyone on their address book.
Now I am not one to talk, I am a professional photographer and my job is to document the world from behind the lens…and of course, I had my smaller DSLR ready to take pictures, but when I’m not taking pictures, I often try to take in the experience as it happens. I try not to have my phone or camera in front of my face the whole time; I want to be able to enjoy the event without worrying about getting the perfect shot.
Let me explain first that this was the first time that I had ever been to Fenway. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I had no idea that later that night I’d be heading to the first game of the World Series. I got the call mid-afternoon from my dad informing me that he had scored two tickets for us and needless to say, I was incredibly stoked. I drove into the game thinking how cool it would be to go to a baseball game with my father, even at 23.
And so while others at the game were snapping away in a digital world, I preferred a beer in hand, Fenway frank in the other sans camera, being out in the cool autumn night air, and enjoying the fact I was creating memories, not digital files.
Digital vs Analog Photography
In the digital age, we are constantly inundated with images. We see them on our phones, laptops, and TV screens. They bombard us in magazines and advertisements. And because of this constant exposure, we can sometimes take them for granted. The digital photograph has become a valueless currency of pixels in RGB color.
In a world where digital photography is king, it can be easy to forget the beauty and uniqueness of analog photography. Analog photography is quite different, it is a patient art and not for the feckless or casual photographer. Images are captured on film, photographs are printed. One has to be more selective with the photographs you make. You can’t just snap a picture and delete it if you don’t like it; you have to develop the film and hope that you got the shot right. This process makes you think more about each image that you take.
As we advance toward the new digital millennia ahead, I’m not entirely convinced that it’s time to shelve the physical manifestations, tools, and mediums of the analog age, let alone view everything in pixels.
Let Me Wax Nostalgic
My mother would always scold my brothers and me about the amount of time we spent in front of the TV playing video games, an obsession that started with River Raid and Asteroids on Atari and continued with multiplayer, online gaming with Halo — I’m twenty-three, I don’t have to be grown-up yet, right?
I miss bruises. Pine needles and pine sap stuck to clothing and skin. The taste of a bitten tongue — bloodied slightly from roughhousing. I miss backyard fort building with an enemy of girls who’d pursue us.
Her nagging would eventually lead to a forced eviction to the outdoor world of sunlight and grass and we’d whine from behind the shuttered sliding glass door from the outside, looking in on our paused game of Sonic the Hedgehog, pleading to be let back in to fight Dr. Robotnik.
And in those days of the injustice of being forced out into the dangerous world of the other “out” with the threat of bee stings, sunburns, and sweat, it’s what I find myself missing most about my childhood, not the fleeting victory celebration of beating the final boss in “Doom,” but the time I spent running about the neighborhood with a runny nose from chilly autumn air.
Working now, two years out of college, the chance to be a kid again seems far, far away.
I miss bruises. Pine needles and pine sap stuck to clothing and skin. The taste of a bitten tongue — bloodied slightly from roughhousing. I miss backyard fort building with an enemy of girls who’d pursue us.
Film photography is like the dull throb of a schoolyard scraped knee — it’s tangible and experienced whereas the digital image is more an ethereal ideal that’s easily manipulated.
Reconciling the Duality of Film and Digital as a Photographer Today
As a professional photographer in the digital age, I find myself constantly bouncing between two worlds. On one hand, there is the allure of the instant gratification that comes with capturing an image on a digital camera and seeing it instantly displayed on a screen. The ease and speed of the workflow are unmatched.
On the other hand, there is the beauty and unique perspective that comes with using film to make a photograph. For me, reconciling these two worlds is what makes photography so interesting and challenging, and the push and pull of having to navigate the creation of images to be consumed on-screen vs. held in hand is something I still struggle with.
I suppose being a young photographer today is about navigating the dichotomy and recognizing the value in both the tangible nature of film photography and the commodification of the digital image file.