Sally Mann switches to digital from 8x10.

[Alan Edward Klein]

Getting old isn't fun.

Sally Mann explains why, aged 74, she has finally switched from 10x8in sheet film to using a digital camera

After decades of working with sheets of black-and-white film, the large-format photographer recently experienced a 'Wizard of Oz' moment.

www.digitalcameraworld.com

 

[Pieter12]

Getting old isn't fun.

I don't think that's why she has adopted digital. It sounds like she is enjoying it more.

 

[Richard Man]

$12/sheet + development. Not for the faint of heart.

And color is $20+/sheet

 

[Pioneer]

I don't think it is going to get any cheaper with the price of silver climbing to the moon. I am down to my last couple of boxes of 8x10. When they are finished I may set up my Beseler enlarger again and go back to 4x5 instead of contact printing 8x10.

 

[Cholentpot]

I think it might have to do with being 74 years old possibly. But never ask a man his salary and a woman her age.

I don't think the cost of film and development bothers a successful artist all that much.

 

[Taylor K Nankervis]

I don't think the cost of film and development bothers a successful artist all that much.

It is actually, considerably.
Cost and processing of film is very significantly higher than it was e.g. 5 years ago ($4.00 to process E6 120 film; now $18). Wages don't keep in line with increases in all other expenses, quite beside film etc.! Expenses across the board in analogue practice are giving rise to a migration away from film; not unforeseen by many of us in the industry, and the exodus is picking up each year.

 

[Pieter12]

I think it might have to do with being 74 years old possibly. But never ask a man his salary and a woman her age.

I don't think the cost of film and development bothers a successful artist all that much.

If you read her latest book, Art Work, you realize how much film she burns through. So the expense is a consideration when compared to digital. I wonder if she is using a digital tech camera to still have some access to movements.

 

[thinkbrown]

Honestly, these days if you're not shooting film for the love of the process, it's hard to justify not shooting digital. I've made the comment before a number of times: the reason I shoot film is for what happens after the shot. I love the chemistry, I love the zen, and I love working in the darkroom.

If I lived in a world where I couldn't process and print my photos at home, I'd 100% be shooting a digital workflow.

 

[Paul Howell]

At 76 I can relate to how age impact how someone understands his or her work. From little is reported seems that the cost of 8X10 married with something new, old lens with a digital body provides a new perceptive.

 

[MattKing]

But never ask a man his salary and a woman her age.

More likely to be meaningful to people of Sally Mann's age then what I understand your age to be @Cholentpot .