Tuesday 1 May 2012

Thoughts on photography

I had a really interesting chat with my housemates this evening about creativity and waste. I've been doing quite a lot of thinking about the Deconsumerism project over the last week, and I posed the question about whether photography was an allowable luxury for me. It's something I spend a reasonable amount of money on (either on cameras or the processing) so I don't feel it's something I can ignore without thinking it through.

I love both digital and film photography - I'm pretty much at my happiest when I have a camera in my hand. I have a lovely DSLR that I bought about 18 months ago, and since then I've bought a second lens for it. Film camera wise, I have about 7 cameras - a mixture of lomo cameras and vintage film cameras (which bar one, were all second hand).

But both digital and film cameras have consumer impact. Obviously I already have the cameras, so the embodied energy is not such an issue. With the digital camera though, there is the additional embodied energy of any other lenses/accessories I buy, plus the energy I use to run my laptop (especially when postprocessing photos etc). With the film cameras, there's the film development to consider. I thought for a long time about not getting them printed out and just getting them put on disc, but there's something really magical about getting them printed that I can't seem to stay away from - I'm like a kid in a candy store, unwrapping the photos before I even leave the shop...

Now, photography is not essential for life, but I consider it necessary. To me, creativity is what makes the world so exciting and life so rich. In Cradle to Cradle, they say "In a world dominated by efficiency, each development would serve only narrow and practical purposes. Beauty, creativity, fantasy, enjoyment, inspiration, and poetry would fall by the wayside..." And those amazing creative activities usually involve some element of consumption.

Now consuming itself is not a bad thing - it's consumerism I have a problems with. But I want to make sure that I am consuming responsibly. So what does that mean when it comes to photography?

1) Can I buy second hand? When it comes to lenses and equipment, this would bypass the question of the embodied energy. Sadly it's not always possible, but it should definitely be my first port of call.

2) Support my local shops! I tend to do this anyway with my film development, as I use Photographique, which is a local processing shop. However, when I bought my camera, I got it from Amazon as it was the cheapest place at the time. Now would like to try to favour a local or independent shop such as London Camera Exchange if I bought anything additional items.

3) Dispose of the waste responsibly. With film photography, there is waste - from the cardboard film boxes, film cannisters (or foil wrappers for 120 film) to the wrapping of the photos that come back. I tend to keep the plastic film cannisters and find alternative uses for them (my friend makes awesome fairy lights out of them), but could do better with the rest of it.

4) Don't be wasteful with film. There is definitely an environmental impact to the chemicals used that shouldn't be ignored. I already do this, but mostly with monetary motivation. Medium format film is expensive to buy and process - the film is £3 or £4 a roll, with developing another £8. So a roll of 12 photos works out at a quid a shot. So wastefulness is unlikely to be an issue at this point in time. But it's something to bear in mind with 35mm stuff as it's a lot cheaper.

5) Use my skills to help others. I've had a few opportunities to do this over the last 18 months, doing photography to help out friends at gigs, storytelling and circus events in the woods, and film events. All the projects have either been for charity, or small/start up events that couldn't afford to pay someone to do the photography, and also been a great opportunity for me to improve my skills and push my abilities (fancy taking some photos of a film night with no lighting without a flash... erm ok!). I've not done it in a while though, and it's something I'd really like to carry on doing when I can.

2 comments:

  1. Don't totally discount Jacobs on Whiteladies Road. Yes, they're a chain but in my experience it is staffed by real camera enthusiasts and they'll do things like order things for you to try.
    They also have some s/h gear.
    Also - for niche needs there's Ffordes in Inverness (travel and stuff for sure but they ship and their service for buying and selling is second to none).
    BTW - really enjoying your blog...I should have been in bed two hours ago.

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  2. Cheers Liz - glad you're enjoying it :)

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