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Originally Posted by Jadedoto  The final result? Everything from enlarging onto 4x5 film to print a positive to contacting the 35mm, to contacting the positive to 4x5 film and all variations of solarizing and double exposing among them... But still I just didn't feel it. Why? |
Why? Perhaps the starkest truth is that this was not in fact a good picture, one which really holds what you want to do.
Or maybe it is not a good picture
now because you haven't found the way to see it yet.
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Originally Posted by Jadedoto What is it that gets you going in the darkroom? Lately I seem to just get bored, and with my commitment to wet photography, it makes my heart ache to look at my dear photographer friend's Flickr and realize that my style isn't refined or changed at all. Albeit I'm 17 (and so is she!), it seems with her digital camera, she's getting ahead where I'm staying behind (I used to be the one teaching her technique and pushing her to develop her own style!). In times like these, how is film going to really push ahead to stay relevant? |
Style is not a set of decisions that govern your picturemaking before you click the shutter. Style is the residual of what people see from what you have done. As for it not being refined yet, well, not everyone is Arthur Rimbaud.
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Originally Posted by Jadedoto Moreover, how am I to develop my style and truly learn where I'm going if I can't shoot much because of prohibitive costs? I really don't want to stop doing this, but even though people tell me my work is awesome and "oh boy it's refreshing to see someone as young as you doing traditional methods!", I'm not feeling it. |
<Old codger's voice> Get a job! </end old codgerness> No, I'm not kidding. My current job is feeding my film expenses. Granted, Provia 400X is now 20$ a roll of 35mm, but bulk film remains pretty cheap. Expired film abounds in the classifieds of photo sites. I only buy new, fresh film when I'm doing something important.
You seem to be using 35mm, so I don't see a reason for you not to bulk load. For 60$ I must get about 15-20 rolls of 36exp. At that price, I can shoot just as if it were digital and try all sorts of things.
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Originally Posted by Jadedoto How are young analog photographers like me going to stay afloat in an all-digital world that I'll be living in when I'm 40, 50 or even 80 years old? I love the magic of the darkroom, but for growing purposes, would it be a crime for me to buy a digital camera to learn style? |
Do you need APUG's absolution to shoot digital? Go ahead, do what you feel is right. Many people here use digital, and they're not ashamed. They just don't discuss it here because the point of the forum is to focus on the film part of life.
If you want to develop yourself, it's not about getting a different toy, it's about thinking about what you are doing, receiving tougher criticisms than people thinking you are awesome, comparing your work with that of others, exchanging ideas, reverse engineering the work of artists you admire, developing an artistic culture, and all sorts of other things that are human, not technical.
Here's a big old cliché of gender, but I would not be surprised if your friend has in fact a very active interpersonal life about her photo. Women communicate more; men often think reading yet another book on the Zone System will make them better photographers. Being wired to other people is what makes you grow, even if these people are dead and their work is all that remains; art is a form of communication after all.