There are those who say black and white photography is “fantasy”, as the world is not seen that way.
I have always loved shooting Tri-X and push processing it just to the point of blow out- then maximizing contrast when printing n the darkroom. I did some film printing and probably the most of my analog film work (medium format, 35mm and Type 100 Polaroid) from about 2012-2016. (Of course, I shot film as a child, but did not yet understand the excitement of processing and printing in those early years.) I do miss film, and still shoot it occasionally.
Digital always somehow seemed to present a colder, more clinical view of the world in my opinion- and what do we expect? It’s all pared down to 1’s and 0’s. Yet, its flexibility and immediacy have advantages. Some of the digital film emulation has become very, very good. Fujifilm’s Acros’ simulation is impressive- as are their color emulations (they are, after all, a film company). I use them frequently. I began to realize how great the emulation had become when I had trouble remembering which editorial images I had published were digital vs. film - as I often shot with both film and digital for one story. When reviewing them, not only did I have to give an educated “guess”, but when asking experts- they were sometimes wrong, citing, “Oh this is film- definitely! Look at the organic grain and light fall off, and the way the highlights are pushed without blowout . . .” etc. When, in fact, going back and pulling the image off my archives- it was digital with film emulation.
Leica has a new approach with its purely greyscale, 35mm, high resolution digital M10 and Q2 Monochrom cameras. I have been intrigued by these, but only the Q2 with its crop portrait modes, snappy autofocus, and excellent, fixed f28mm 1.7 lens, tempted me enough to jump in. It’s a beauty- and so is this woman who walked in to La Mercerie the first night I brought the camera out with me in Soho. . . I’m looking forward to making more images with this tool . . . magical!
