----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Waterson"
Subject: Wow, Canvas "is" dead (Was maybe film *is* dead!)
I think regardless of cost, film will survive. When the first Black and
White
photos became comercially available I can almost here the artists
screaming...
There are a couple of key differences at play here.
Few people can paint well, it's always been that way.
Most people can take a decent photograph, providing they have a camera of
some sort.
Photography was not really competition for painting as an art form so much
as a democratizer, in that all of a sudden, most anyone could make good
"art".
Digital imaging is a direct competitor to about 98% of film's customers, and
is becoming very widely accepted by that customer base, and is being pushed
very hard as a desirable alternative to film by both manufacturers and the
service industry.
Painting is still being taught in most every art school, photography schools
are abandoning film entirely.
The people aren't buying it anymore, the artists aren't being taught with it
anymore.
Every lab operator I talk to is saying film processing volumes are in
freefall.
We've dropped another 10% since Christmas, and film processing is less than
40% of it's peak volume of 3 years ago, which was our busiest year since we
started doing photoprocessing in Canada.
Further, half of our film processing is now single use cameras, which
eventually will be the only film available, I am betting sooner rather than
later on this one.
You might want to learn how to optimize Kodak Max800, it's what you are
going to be shooting in a couple of years from now.
Unless you are shooting digital, that is.
I know this is an unpopular outlook, but it is what I am seeing, working
within the industry. I don't like it, but I have to be realistic about the
trends I am seeing in my industry.
William Robb
