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B1 9 Feb. 2012

Ongoing battle: film vs. digital photography

film photography, youre either really lucky or you work incredibly hard to get the right moment. However, Wegmann never wants to downplay Whether using a Canon or a Kodak, the eledigital photographers who practice serious art. ments of photography relatively stay the same. I know several very talented digital photograIntroduce the question, Film or digital? into the phers on campus, he said. They dont point and equation, and differences of opinion emerge. shoot. They wait for that perfect moment. The two mediums As the final project for his achieve a print using two film photography class, Wegentirely and highly mann spent a day photographdebated methods. ing 73-year-old, friend-of-aEver since the 90s, friend Kenny Bontrager. when Kodak, Sony and There are two things others began marketing he refused to put up with: consumer-level digital laziness and self-pity, said cameras, film enthusiasts Wegmann. As a food truck decreed digital as a lesser driver, he did work younger art. men would shrink at. There tends to be Wegmann was forced to people who say digital capture the decisive moisnt real and that film ment when photographing is more of an art. Thats Kenny Bontragers friend nonsense, said Douglas Amish Ed. Bontragers Coon, lecturer in art and coworker initially refused staff photographer. The Wegmanns request but cameras just a camera. finally agreed to allow one Digital photography photograph. picked up speed in the I waited till the end of the early 2000s as quality day to get the picture. They images became achievwere both waiting til they able. After starting film could clock out and were just photography in college, staring at the clock, WegCoon shifted from film mann said. Originally, there to digital about five years wasnt enough light. The ago. Freshman Phillip Wegmann and his negative was very dark. I had The biggest change photo of Amish Ed and Renny Bon- to tease the whites out with with digital is the quality trager. (Sally Nelson/Collegian) filter also save the blacks with of the system, said Coon. other filters. The quality now surpasses film. The image required careful dodging - or inThough Coon has entirely switched to digital, creasing the exposure of specific areas of the imhe still says there are some things he likes about age and burning or decreasing the exposure film. of certain sections. Film handles highlights really well, he said. With digital photography, it takes a second to Freshman Phillip Wegmann, however, shoots take a single frame, he said. With film photogalmost exclusively with film. His passion for film raphy, it takes two to three hours to make sure photography began when, inspired by his fathers there is no dust or scratches on the negative. Its work, he enrolled in a film photography class at evident that you spend a lot of time with many the University of St. Francis. steps between closing the shutter and the final Photography doesnt deserve the respect it print. gets because, today, people think of it as nothing Coon said that the idea of film requiring more more than a click, he said. With black and white of a decisive moment than with digital is a Sally Nelson Web Editor

Arts

(Sally Nelson/Collegian)

As part of his critique of Andy Warhol, Phillip Wegmann shot a Campbells soup can with a shotgun. This is the photograph. (Courtesy of Phillip Wegmann) misconception because both require hours of postprocessing. With film, you have to match film, the chemicals in the dark room, the paper and the filters in the enlarger, said Coon. You get the same results in different ways. Coon said that, though many people think manipulation of images began with digital photography, film photographers can edit photos more than many people know. Film photographers are perfectly capable of adding and removing elements of photos by using layers of masks. It was just harder with film, he said. There is what I consider a false perception that film is truer. Wegmann uses film to capture greater truths. For an assignment on re-imagining art, he critiqued Andy Warhols subjectivistic perspective on art. I wanted to critique [Warhols] prostitution of art this idea of anything as art, he said. He did so through a serious of photos playing off of Warhols work, from the wildly famous Campbells soup can to the painting of the banana that The Velvet Underground picked up. Since he has stopped taking photography classes the University of St. Francis, Wegmann would love to see a dark room in Sage once again. However, as Coon explained, the cost of film and processing equipment makes it impractical for most students. Its hard to find film anymore. Motion pictures are saving film because they use miles of it for movies. It keeps plants producing it, he said. snelson1@hillsdale.edu

Sarah Gerber: capturing life from afar

Shannon Odell Spaces Editor For Sarah Howard Gerber 10, photography has always been a risk. She risks her health, money, and future security for the sake of recording untold stories and sharing them with the world. From Berkley, Calif., Sarahs love for photography and people is sending her all over the world as she pursues her dream to be both a photojournalist and a storyteller. Beginning in her college years, Sarah Gerber explored many types of photography, working for the colleges External Affairs department, yearbook, and student newspaper. After graduating, she began working as photographer and registered her business, TWENTYTWENTY Studios. The first year was really starting out wide seeing what sort of opportunities came up and what things really captured my interest, Sarah Gerber said. She photographed weddings, engagements, families, pregnancies, food, and events. During this time, she also discovered the capacity of her cameras ability to capture high-definition video. I was captivated by the idea of using my photography eye for moving pictures as well, Sarah Gerber said. I hadnt thought of it before how similar photography and moving pictures are. The combination of still and film photography to tell a story is what compelled me to pursue it more seriously. In 2011, Sarah Gerber realized she was not passionate about being a photographer for the sake of taking photographs. You have to go after your passions, her husband Dave Gerber said. This year, Sarahs wondered what she is really passionate about. I decided to take a step back and see what has emerged as most interesting to me because I knew that to be to be successful, I cant do it all and I need to have a specialized focus on Photos by Sarah Gerber (Right) A school boy posing outside the school in a refugee slum on the outskirts of Juba, what I want to capture, Sarah South Sudan (Left) One of the grandes of the pueblo of St. Elana in the rural mountains of Honduras. Her face is lit Gerber said. only by the candles of a small shrine to the saints in the corner of the otherwise dark room. (Courtesy of Sarah Gerber) You have to run in the path Something that came up for his home village. The primary that I feel like isnt otherwise said. Some people want there of what brings excitement to me was the diversity of wedgoal of the project was fundrais- told, thats what I pursue. to be an easy way to have a you, Dave Gerber said. Its ing opportunities and awareWe started taking risks in successful or fulfilling life, and definitely going to cost you, but ding traditions across cultures, she said. If I could do ethnic, ness. Sudan, and now Honduras, I know I feel the same way. The thats where youre going to cultural weddings, I would want This week, Sarah Gerber Dave Gerber said. Sarah didnt whole process of Sarah doing find yourself. to put everything I have into returned from a two-week trip know she was passionate about this is its a huge risk for us. As she reflected on her pasrural coffee farmers in HonduPart of the reason shes so sucsions and photography, she real- that. Whereas if I was doing tra- to Honduras. She traveled to ditional weddings, it wouldnt a small mountain village to ras, but she is. We took a huge cessful is shes willing to risk. ized that there are two aspects have the same passion or pull. capture the incredible effort that risk launching our companies. Sarah Gerbers business is of photography that draw her Along with working to the Honduran farmers exert to We invested in them. We still in the building stages. She interest. She loves the idea of build her business as an ethnic make coffee. realized, if we dont do this, is working on a possibility of a capturing ethnic weddings and wedding photographer, she will Its the idea of bringing we cant pursue our dreams. Ugandan wedding and has a tradocumenting and presenting also begin a blog to explore the people back to the source of Theres no free passes in life. ditional Jewish wedding already stories that are not being told. traditions of the cultures. things and thinking about where And Dave Gerber knows booked. It has an academic aspect the stuff comes from, she said. why Sarah Gerber is so successTo see her work, visit www. to it, Sarah Gerber said. That Right now theres an interest ful. twentytwentystudios.com. pulls in even more of my interin that. Theres a number of What it comes down to is sodell@hillsdale.edu est. There is an academic attrac- companies that love to sell cofthat you have to take risks, he tion, more than if I just pursue fee, and their main objective is traditional weddings. to connect people to the source These cultural weddings are of their coffee. just a microcosm of Sarah GerWhen Sarah Gerber met the bers bigger passion, which is woman who started the coffee to capture stories through film. company, she knew she wanted This interest has already sent to capture the story. Sarah soon her to both Sudan and Hondufound herself in the mountains ras. Her work records the stories of Honduras. of people who have found ways I was really compelled to affect their cultures. by it, she said. Thats the Sarah Gerbers traveled to main component of this part of South Sudan in May 2011 to what Im doing. Its more of a Sarah Gerber posing for the camera when she visited capture the story of a Sudanese personal, guided pursuit. When and took photographs in Sudan. (Courtesy of Sarah Gerber) man who is building a school in I find a story thats compelling,