12. Technology

Many people believe that technology has taken the poetry out of communication and that too much technology is the destroyer of emotions and truth.  Does technology really do anything for creativity? Yes, it makes some tasks easier and you can finish some things quicker, but does it make you a more creative person?  Picasso went so far to say that “computers are useless.  They can only give you answers.”

We live in a technologically driven world yet we should not be technologically driven artists.  Our heart, soul, and fertile minds should be the main sources of our creativity, not a machine.  This is not to say that the computer is not an amazing tool.  It is, as long as it is used and respected as a tool, a contributing part of your process, and not just a method to correct what should’ve been taken care of in the first place, or to add what you forgot, or to put 47 more bits and pieces of whatever into your photo just because you can !  Technology can invite a certain carelessness, a lack of discipline, an invitation to lazy.

I believe the computer should be used like an enlarger in a traditional “wet” darkroom for cropping, contrast, burning and dodging, color adjustment . . .  This means that you have a good negative [ captured image ] to start with !  This process requires minor adjustments not a major overhaul.  In today’s world, this translates to beginning with a good capture instead of a media card full of improperly exposed, poorly framed images, adding layers and layers of extra information, de-saturating color, burying in Gausian blur, attached to a burning cow and flying out of a fireplace on a broomstick !! Treat the computer as if it were a darkroom enlarger, not a ride at Disneyland.  Do not forget that we are human beings full of emotions, feelings, senses, attitudes, and personal nuances; we are not creators made up of nuts and bolts or one’s and zeros.

“Digital capture can make a photographer sloppy to the point

of ineptitude. If used as a crutch, digital can induce our

photographic muscles into a state of atrophy.”

“I figured out pretty early, even in the darkroom, having too

many options is counter productive to the creative process.

And the computer is the king of too many options.”

- Jerry Ulesman

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any

invention in human history – with the possible exception

of handguns and tequila.”