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I went over to Porte de Versailles this morning to visit the annual Salon de la Photo, the largest venue for new photography equipment that I'm aware of in Paris or France for that matter. All the big names were there -- Canon, Nikon, Leica, Sigma, Hasselblad, Gitzo, Epson, Sony and so forth.
Last year I'd been very pleased to run across a small stand set up by a fellow from Germany who was selling/distributing Rollei film and developer -- I was able to buy some ATP and so forth. This year, no such luck. The only b/w film I could find at the show were a couple of rolls of HP5 sitting off to one side in a glass display case at the Ilford exhibit, who were generally selling printers (they did exhibit some b/w prints from a competition they'd held). Fuji had a few rolls of color and b/w film on display. Kodak had six rolls of the new Ektar sitting in a display case but if you didn't know what it was you'd have missed it. Happily the salesman gave me a free test roll -- probably one of the few he was able to hand out today. Over at Tetenal, they really didn't want to talk about their chemistry. At least Leica was still showing film-based camera gear, as was the Zeiss importer.
Overall, the place presented me a future of photography I feel very divorced from -- all digital, everyone poring over a computer, all the color popping, all glitz. Maybe this is how cowboys felt when Model Ts showed up in the Old West.
As an antitode, so to speak, I headed over the museum in honor of Henri-Cartier Bresson and looked an an exhibit of photographs of 1920-1940's America by HCB and Walker Evans. Small photographs, none in color, all drawing wonder from the many visitors. Skill shines through. Could or would have Henri and Walker made those photos with a digital camera if they'd existed then? My mind says maybe yes, but my heart says that the very experience of film, of having the photons forever captured in emulsion, is integral to the pictures before me.
Last year I'd been very pleased to run across a small stand set up by a fellow from Germany who was selling/distributing Rollei film and developer -- I was able to buy some ATP and so forth. This year, no such luck. The only b/w film I could find at the show were a couple of rolls of HP5 sitting off to one side in a glass display case at the Ilford exhibit, who were generally selling printers (they did exhibit some b/w prints from a competition they'd held). Fuji had a few rolls of color and b/w film on display. Kodak had six rolls of the new Ektar sitting in a display case but if you didn't know what it was you'd have missed it. Happily the salesman gave me a free test roll -- probably one of the few he was able to hand out today. Over at Tetenal, they really didn't want to talk about their chemistry. At least Leica was still showing film-based camera gear, as was the Zeiss importer.
Overall, the place presented me a future of photography I feel very divorced from -- all digital, everyone poring over a computer, all the color popping, all glitz. Maybe this is how cowboys felt when Model Ts showed up in the Old West.
As an antitode, so to speak, I headed over the museum in honor of Henri-Cartier Bresson and looked an an exhibit of photographs of 1920-1940's America by HCB and Walker Evans. Small photographs, none in color, all drawing wonder from the many visitors. Skill shines through. Could or would have Henri and Walker made those photos with a digital camera if they'd existed then? My mind says maybe yes, but my heart says that the very experience of film, of having the photons forever captured in emulsion, is integral to the pictures before me.
