You think film photography was user friendly ? or easy and simple to learn ? Take off those rose tinted glasses and be objective.
Rob you often go on about how difficult it is for modern photographers to make a living now, just remember that one of the key reasons why photography was a well paid profession then was because it wasn't easy or simple.
Yes, I repeat: I do think it was easy.
Hell, even I was able to learn it more or less by myself, with the gloss put on over a few years in industry. Yes, I did have to go to night school too (not my choice), but left in disgust with the crap I was being sold by teachers for whom I could scrape no respect.
The reason it (the business) used to be great was that, post-WW2, the world’s economy went into overdrive. There was a huge volume of work available, more than could be easily met by the infrastructure that was already there; there was room for expansion, and boy, did it expand after a few golden years! Post Blow Up, every goddamn guy who’d heard of the Shrimp or Vogue suddenly became infatuated with the idea of holding a camera and watching girls peel. Right, in your well-paid dreams, perhaps, but in your wedding and passport studio, possibly not. All at once, there was far more supply than demand and the market ruled, even then. This growth-cum-gradual financial decline came about decades prior to digital, I might add. It had nothing to do with the job being difficult or not; it was all about supply and demand, as I said.
The other, economy-related problem that came along, was the change in the stock industry, that imaginary 'pension' we were all building up. Poor investment, it turned out - not for widows, orphans or photographers!
“ 'Personally I think digital moves us more into paying attention to the technical as compared to the art of photography.'
What bunk people tell themselves. Fortunately some of us are old enough and wise enough to know better.“
Yep, and I’m probably a hell of a lot older than you, and remember it all very well indeed. And I confirm that I did and do indeed see it that way, that film photography was all about photography and digi is far more techno-centric in its appeal to the general public; as I have often suggested, it attracts a different mindset.
Rob C