Hi, Wednesday, December 29, 2004, 9:14:36 PM, Shel wrote:
> So, are you saying that these pros either used every shot on a roll of film > or that, if there were some they'd not use, they were cut out of the > negative strips, deleted from contact sheets, and tossed, never to be seen > again? I can just imagine a photographer having shot a roll 220 film going > through the negs or transparencies and deciding that this or that frame was > not going to work, getting out a pair of scissors, cutting out that frame > or two, and tossing it. Sorry, I don't buy it. [...] People who shoot slides and have them mounted often toss away the dross. It can be quite cathartic. But see below. > Shooting to "learn" is sometimes a different situation, but unless the > results are saved, the learning process is truncated. How can the photog > go back and compare the result from the photos made this month with the > ones made a month or two earlier and see where and how improvement has been > accomplished, if at all. Another benefit of keeping everything is that other people, not just the photographer, can learn from it. Recently I have seen 3 good examples of this: 1. The Robert Frank exhibition at Tate Modern includes some contact sheets. It's fascinating to see what could have gone into The Americans, but didn't. It's fun and educational to try and figure out why frame 18a made it, but 19 didn't. 2. The new Magnum book 'Magnum Stories' includes some contact strips (too few) and the out-take slides from Stuart Franklin's famous shot of the man confronting the Chinese tank. 3. The new book "Tony Ray-Jones" by Russell Roberts includes a lot of contact sheets as well as TR-J's working notes in facsimile. These are why I bought the book - I already have the photographs in the 2 other books of his work. This is all fascinating historical information, comparable to having Leonardo's sketch books, or the Wright Brothers' engineering notes. Nobody could have known in advance that the work by Frank and by Ray-Jones could have become so important and influential. But it's of great practical value to photographers because it shows in detail how these 2 went about their business, and gives us examples we can compare and contrast with each other, as well as our own humble efforts, and which we can learn from. Each of us might think our efforts are not worth keeping, and nobody can learn from them. But I'm sure most of us know young people who are learning, or have friends who might benefit from seeing our dross, even if it's only to encourage them in their even humbler efforts. It will be a great shame if the rise of digital photography means that we lose this type of material. -- Cheers, Bob If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time --Robert Doisneau
