All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this — as in other ways — they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.
-John Berger
Digital photography has made "aim and shoot" the favourite pastime of a narcissistic society. Armed with mobile phones, amateurs are ever ready to point their cameras and capture a moment for eternity. And yet, despite the plethora of cameras and a glut of "shooters", the romance of photography is dead.
There is no suspense of waiting to see what the photograph will look like. Seeing the negative gradually come to life in the darkroom is a rarity these days. Lovingly caressing the pages of a photo album reminiscing about "those days" has almost become a thing of the past.
French photographer Martin Becka, who is exhibiting his works in Dubai, agrees. "There is no magic in digital photography. The younger generation has no grasp of what was prior to digital and many of them are surprised to learn that a type of photography other than digital exists. When I teach, I always teach traditional silver-based techniques and for many of my students this is quite a discovery," he says.
Photography has always proven itself an art form. From the middle of the 19th century, photographers were already exhibiting their work in the big artistic halls.
"The debate on photography being ‘art' or ‘not art' does not arise in our times. However, with the advent of mass production of the photographic medium globally, the artistic form of production only represents a fraction of it all," Becka says.
Whether photography is an art form or not is arguable but it plays a vital role in the documentation of society, proving time and again that a picture is worth a thousand words.
But the pictures don't always get seen as it is not cost-effective to print all the images shot by a digital camera. Most people prefer to store their images in digital format, which raises the question about the future of these images. In Becka's wife's family there are many family portraits that date from the mid-19th century, more that 150 years ago. They are all arranged in a box in such a way that they can be viewed anytime.
"Many do not realise that digital images may not actually be printed on paper, and that their children or grandchildren may not view the digital files. We actually do not dispose of methods in technology that help us preserve anything in time. The life of a CD or a DVD may be between 20 to 40 years compared to silver-based film and paper in black and white, which usually remains intact for more than 100 years," Becka says.
Also, the software to store information is evolving constantly, quickly making the previous technology obsolete. Some images can no longer be read because of the evolving system of recognising certain files versus others. But the "digital format has a simple advantage in the professional realm that helps with the strategies of organising, to ensure the preservation of the files and the software at a given time. This implies high costs."
Electronic storage of images brings us to a moot point. In the long run, will photography, or as we know it, die?
"It is hard to make a prediction on the survival of the photographic image. In the digital domain, we must ask ourselves if the term ‘photography' in its true sense still exists. The borders of technology have become undistinguishable between the captured image, fixed captured images and video stills. For the silver-based technologies, all depends on the industry. Even if there is a demand for true photography, it also has to be profitable for manufacturers who produce the equipment. And about that I am not entirely optimistic," Becka says.
There is no denying that technology has levelled the playing field. From an elite profession in the 1970s, photography has become a mundane sport. According to Becka, photography today has become user-friendly, with ease of creating images, synthesising, sampling and transforming them.
Thus in the realm of the image production and reproduction, it has become a great breakthrough in the domain of information exchange. "With the help of a simple mobile phone, it has become possible to photograph, make films, write text, record sound and send information across the planet," he says.
However, the profile of a professional photographer has been hurt due to the swelling numbers of unskilled amateurs going click, click, click at any given opportunity.
Although Becka agrees that mass production of photography has opened the floodgates for an amateur, which is problematic for professional photographers, he says "knowing how to write does not make everyone of us great writers, poets or journalists. The same principle applies to professional photography. A master of photography goes far beyond the simplicity of capturing an image facilitated by the use of a digital camera."
However, despite its pitfalls, the digitisation of photography has actually made life easier for photographers. More time can be spent on creative composition as photographers no longer have to work so hard to get that exact shot or wait for the perfect light because you can easily "edit" a photo.
Becka feels postproduction working possibility does not limit professional photographers and allows them to enhance their work using a computer. "It is necessary to have a good workmanship of the whole digital chain, and it demands true competence. The digital sensitometry is as complex at least as the silver-based technologies. This competence is extremely important for the grasp of views as the digital sensors sometimes accept much fewer details than a silver film and are decked out in specific digital defects, which were not known in silver film photography," Becka says.
Considering the amount of time Becka devotes to his passion, it is difficult to agree with the premise that photographers are lazy artists. His working hours in a day average between 10 and 12, sometimes six to seven days a week.
As a photographer who likes to work with basic materials, Becka rues Eastman Kodak's decision to cease the manufacture of Kodachrome due to declining sales. "Undoubtedly, this will be a major setback for silver-based photography; it will reduce the traditional photosensitive surfaces drastically. This is a huge loss for the photographic world."
Dubai, Transmutations runs at The Empty Quarter Fine Art Photography Gallery until November 17.
Cityscape talks in sepia-hued tones
Excerpts from an interview with Martin Becka:
Your images of Dubai are surreal and present the city's landscape as a sepia-toned ghost town. The eerie stillness in the photographs evokes a sense of loneliness. Is this deliberate?
There is a lot of calm in these photographs as if we are transported into a different time and space. I try to look at contemporary cities as if we were looking at them with an eye on a distant future. The exposure time for the images is quite long, sometimes up to 30 minutes. This lengthy exposure time explains why there are no people, cars or anything moving in the photographs. It is the same as the photography done in the early 19th century, from Paris, Rome and Egypt. I do not see any sadness inside the images, the results are more of an archaeological documentation showing a true representation of the city, the streets and the monuments.
What exactly were you hoping to achieve by using 170-year-old techniques?
I discovered these early techniques in the early 1980s while doing some research about the first four decades following the invention of photography. The diverse processes that were invented in the beginning stages of photography fascinate me. It was a pre-industrial period; there were no manufacturers of film and paper already established. It wasn't until the 1880s that the fabrication of paper and film began on an industry level. During the pre-industrial period, the fabrication of paper and film sensitive surfaces was still a very personal crafted technique done by each individual auteur.
Each and every photographer had to hand make his own negative and positive starting with the basic chemistry, right through to the integral process necessary to obtain an image. I am fascinated with the idea of working in this same manner, with basic materials that I have chosen personally, and to be able to preserve, master and understand fully what I am creating. In our world, where everything is moving so fast and frequently, it has made me keener on working with slow processes.
Often I work on creating my negatives all night. Then in the morning I go to shoot with my chamber camera equipment that weighs over 80 kilograms. I know that I would not be able to take more than four images per day and that I have to spend the night developing my film.
Working in this fashion is inconvenient and cumbersome, but, it suits me perfectly. There is a real pleasure to be able to deal with the craft and the elements involved that I have created with light; this for me has a majestic appeal. These techniques fascinate me because of their high aesthetic value.
Why did you choose Dubai as a subject?
I have been pursuing the series of ‘urban-scapes' for several years. I met Elie Domit, the Director of The Empty Quarter Fine Art Photography gallery at Baudoin Lebon Gallery in Paris in 2007 at the Paris photo art fair. I showed him my photographs and we talked at length about my type of work. He then asked me if I would be interested in photographing Dubai.
I was enchanted with the idea of documenting Dubai in this way. He was the instigator of the idea and the starting spark of the project and I am truly thankful for his enthusiasm and support. I am also grateful to Princess Reem Al Faisal who believed in me, and this project from the very beginning. Princess Reem Al Faisal and Safa Al Hamed extended their precious help and it is only with thanks to these two ladies that we have been able to reach and accomplish this project along with a book and a portfolio.
Show of age
Dubai, Transmutations features 40 exquisitely detailed salted paper prints. Martin Becka has photographed Dubai by employing techniques used 170 yeas ago.
The contemporary city appears ancient as Dubai's streets, buildings, landmarks and bridges appear to span time and space.
The images of the thousands of building sites of Dubai's metamorphosis have been captured with a wooden photographic tool of very large format on negative waxed papers; a process invented approximately 160 years ago by Gustave Le Gray. These photographs were printed on albumin paper and were toned with gold.
As part of the exhibition, The Empty Quarter has brought the original camera dating from 1857 to accompany the display, including a darkroom set up from that period external to the gallery for viewing.
