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switch to:Photography's Current Obsession with Film Doesn’t Mean It’s Better Than Digital - VICE
|by |Photography's Current Obsession with Film Doesn’t Mean It’s Better Than DigitalKarl Edwards knows digital photography isn't just for tech nerds and your mom.by |All photos by Karl Edwards All photos by Karl Edwards Shooting with film, in case you haven't noticed, has become the done thing in the art world right now. If you're not taking pictures of your beautiful friends by a body of water with a point-and-shoot as old as your kid sister, forget about it. In a lot of the digital revolution turned out mostly to be a bunch of butterfly wings photoshopped over soft-lit pregnant women shot on a Canon 8D. But while we do need to shake it up, is film the only answer? Photographer Karl Edwards is the editor of& . The site is a welcome break from the gear and tech talk that permeates much of photography these days. He's also a big fan of digital who sees there's a massive difference between your mom taking 900 photos at family dinners and great photographers using the best technology available to make interesting and original work. We grabbed him to talk about the &divide. VICE: So what made you personally dedicated to digital? Karl Edwards: To me, it's not just the workflow, but I'm also in a constant state of learning. And the immediacy is the important thing, it gives you the kind of feedback where I remember the shots I took yesterday. Looking at them, I can think about how I could have shot it better. If it sits on a roll of film and two weeks go past, I'm a little more detached. For someone who's always trying to learn, it makes a lot of sense. Also, I get about 90 minutes of peace to myself a day. I don't have unlimited resources so I'd have to shoot my own film, process it, and scan it myself. Not only is it not affordable, but that's about 90 minutes per roll. Film is the language of photography, but the reality is it's just not practical. Where do you think the current resurgence of film is coming from? I think the&&in the 90s probably drove this a lot. In a way it was Instagram before Instagram. I don't think it's practical, it's kind of like a walled garden, they're doing it because it is what it is. You've heard me wax on about how beautiful film is but I think a lot of people shoot film because it's a thing they can do and it looks great, so why not do it? I had a job yesterday where I had to shoot 400 shots. That would have been $1,200 on film so it instantly becomes impractical in a commercial sense. I think it's mostly romantic. But I like the idea that It's a physical reaction, when light hits the silver halides on film, they physically change. It's more than just a facsimile of a moment. There are movements and slogans for everything—buy film not megapixels etc., but the reality is most people are scanning it in and putting it on the internet. Film can do things digital cannot do. The gradation of tone is never the same on Tri-X, it can't be re-produced on Silver Efex or VSCO. There's a clinical nature we've been accustomed to.&We can pine over the lost error of film, but even the great Magnum photographers are shooting digital now. I don't want to say it's better, but it's a better workflow. At the end of the day, when it comes to just making images, I'm fine with digital. I 100 percent agree with black-and-white, but I hate to say it, VSCO is getting close with Portra. It's really close. I don't want to say it looks like film, because then why not go and just shoot film? But I used VSCO Portra 400 in that job yesterday and it looks the way I want it to look, which happens to be the way Portra looks. It's easy to hate on VSCO, but I'm glad that Adobe doesn't have a monopoly on what color should be any more. Exactly, and they've done it the right way. Every preset is tuned to every sensor, so it's not just this thick blanket of goo that they pour over all your shots. The other argument for digital is distribution. Everything that's so amazing about film is negated when you chuck it on Instagram Totally, the whole idea for me is to show my work. In the old days you had to schlep around town with a giant portfolio hoping galleries would deem you worthy and show your work. The democratization that the internet has brought around means anyone can show their work. It doesn't mean it has to be good, but you have a vibrant community of people that really want to look at the content. That being said, the photobook is coming on strong. And zines. Gotta love the zines. Do you think that originators of street photography like&&would be shooting with film Leicas if they were alive today? I don't think so. Henri's an interesting one, he's got that famous quote, "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst," right? So that's your first 300 rolls. I went through 10,000 shots last summer and they were all terrible. I think he would have been delighted to save so much time today. I just think he was interested in seeing and capturing the world. And if there was an easier to do that, he would have taken that route. Check out&&for more of Karl's brainwaves. Follow&Ben Thomson on& Tagged:subscribeVice ChannelsMock Archives
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The NBA's new CBA, the DL, the IL, and what it all means for the NCAA
The relationship between the NCAA and the NBA has always been an interesting one to watch. It seems as though there has always been a ?hands off? policy within both organizations in regards to the other. The NCAA has long conveniently ignored its role in developing professional basketball players (millionaires), and the NBA has always appeared to shy away from any role in developing the players that it will one day employ. The reality is that these two entities have always been joined at the hip. This relationship has grown more tenuous in recent years, as the trend of the underclassman draftee has emerged. As the NCAA was robbed of its biggest names, college hoops apologists from around the nation spat and sputtered about the ?purity of the game.? The NBA tried to appear uncomfortable with the concept of turning teenagers fresh off of senior prom into millionaires, but teams never backed away from the right youngster on draft night. Meanwhile, the mostly shady underworld of youth basketball continued to fester, and neither organization did anything about it. 951 That is, until July 21st 2005, the day that the NBA?s new collective bargaining agreement was announced. This was supposed to be a day of rejoicing for college basketball fans, as an official age limit was announced. While premier coaches didn?t get the two-year lockdown on high school prospects entering the NBA that they were hoping for, at least they no longer have to worry about their top recruits not showing up at all. However, underneath all the fancy trappings of David Stern ?getting NBA scouts out of high school gyms? was a clear message to the NCAA. Fix American basketball development, or we will fix it for you. We all know about the restructuring of the NBDL. We all know that only a handful of players have been sent down to ?the minors? thus far. What makes the ?D-League? suddenly so significant are the changes that have been made to the CBA to ensure that NBA teams actually utilize it. The ?injured list? has been changed to the ?inactive list?, thus allowing teams to stash young players in the deepest recesses of their rosters. This is a rubber stamped approval (even a bit of encouragement) from David Stern for teams to start drafting players with the future in mind. An even more telling clause in the new CBA involves the upping of the minimum average roster size from 12 players to 14 players. Where the average NBA roster size used to sit somewhere between 12 and 13 players, most teams are carrying a full 15 this season. This might be more than a gentle nudge from the commissioner.
Think these changes aren?t going to affect the college game? Think again. They already are. An absolutely ridiculous number of underclassmen declared for the draft last spring. The draftniks (myself included) lauded a deep class. We noted the impending age limit rule, and blamed that for the rush of high school prospects that entered the draft. They were more than willing to accept a position in the 2nd round, once considered the death knell of the aspiring NBA professional. However, it wasn?t just the high school kids getting antsy. Underclassmen were declaring left and right. It got so bad in the SEC that the conference has no more than a couple of significant returning producers this fall.
The apologists of the college game made reference to the stupidity, impatience and lack of maturity of these players. They blasted corrupt agents, and once again heed and hawed about the ?purity of the game?. Fast forward to NBA opening night, 2005. The high school kids had been cut and were working at McDonald?s by now, right? Wrong. In fact, five of the six were actually on opening night rosters. None had been cut. In fact, the entire second round had done miraculously well. Eighteen of the twenty 2nd round picks that played in the United States last season were on NBA rosters. The two exceptions were , who would be playing a significant role for the Lakers if not for his health problems, and , a native of Puerto Rico that came to the US for his senior year of high school and is essentially being treated as a long-term foreign prospect by the Denver Nuggets. For the first time ever, not even one second rounder was cut, and one even turned down a significant NBA contract to sign a lucrative deal with a European team. Three players drafted in the 50?s were guaranteed a significant amount of money up front. There was a time when agents would call NBA teams late in the second round and beg GM?s not to draft their player. Suddenly, being selected in the 2nd round could be looked at as a nearly guaranteed ticket to at least brief NBA fame and fortune. The results are even more significant when it comes to undrafted rookies. After just five undrafted rookies made opening day rosters in 2004, that number ballooned to seventeen this fall. And many of these players aren?t sweating out ten day contracts, either. Former Saint Joseph?s center
landed a guaranteed two years with the Minnesota Timberwolves after leaving school early and going undrafted, while others like
and Donnell Taylor also have guaranteed deals. Now, it appears that one doesn?t even need to be drafted to end up in the NBA right away. Teams are taking the cue from David Stern to fill up their rosters with ?development? players, and are using their required final spots on the cheapest players they can find ? rookies. As I previewed college basketball this fall, I was taken aback by the lack of proven upperclassmen prospects on major college rosters. The talent is still there, but largely resides in this year?s sophomore class. Players like , , , , ,
and plenty more are firmly on the NBA draft radar. Some will have breakout seasons and become lottery picks. Others won?t, and will find themselves sitting squarely on draft bubble. Will they head pro, despite the opportunity to play their way into a first round spot in 2007? My guess is that just like
this past spring, they will jump ship in droves, and that agents are already inundating 2006?s standout sophomores with wave after wave of the ?D-League argument?.953And why shouldn?t they? Take, for instance, the example of . He was universally vilified by nearly everybody, who all claimed he was blowing a major opportunity. Dick Vitale would claim that Roberson was ?missing out on the best years of his life, baby!? I find it quite presumptuous to assume that every single basketball player out there enjoys going to classes that have little to do with his desired profession while simultaneously likely passing up, at a bare minimum, several hundred thousand dollars a year. Oh yeah. Guess who ended up on the roster of the Memphis Grizzlies? Maybe Roberson wasn?t quite as immature and selfish as everybody so hastily concluded he was. So, with the new 19 year-old age limit, college basketball has regained its star power.
will suit up in red and orange, respectively (just as long as they don?t get too curious about prep school, or the NBDL, though that is for another article). But at the same time, it looks like the NCAA has largely lost its upperclassman standouts. But this is nothing new, you claim. College basketball has been diluted for years. While these new rules may cement the demise of the NCAA senior, the North Carolinas, Dukes, and Connecticuts of the scene have long been successful two-year development stops for America?s top young prospects. Or have they?Check back tomorrow for part two of this article, where we delve even deeper into the issues that plague the development of America?s top basketball prospects, and the implications for both the NCAA and the NBA.
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The name on the back of the jersey means just as much as the name on the front here at DraftExpress, so if you're watching the tournament with an eye on scouting players who will eventually play in the NBA, you've come to the right place.
The name on the back of the jersey means just as much as the name on the front here at DraftExpress, so if you?re watching the NCAA tournament with an eye on scouting future NBA players, you?ve come to the right place.
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February 12, :45 PM PST
If you're buying flowers for your Valentine this year, you may want to rethink which kind you choose.
Luxury Floral Service H. Bloom's lead designer Kyle Hustedt
is here to tell us everything from what color or fragrance to choose to tips on extending the life of a flower.
ROSE COLOR MEANINGS Red = Love
Yellow = Friendship
Orange = Desire
Pink = Admiration
White = Purity, Silence and Secrecy Lavender = Enchantment
FRAGRANT POWERFUL FLOWERS Genestra, Oriental, Stargazer Lillies
LONGEST-LASTING FLOWERS "War-Horse" Orchids, Tropical Flowers, Alstromeria
BIO Kyle Hustedt has been designing floral masterpieces in the Chicago area for the past 4 years. He joined H.Bloom after working under floral artists at Mangel's and Surroundings by Colin. Kyle is H.Bloom's lead designer for corporate accounts and the avant garde floral arrangements produced each week.
ABOUT H.BLOOM H.Bloom is a luxury floral service serving businesses and consumers in the Chicago market. It's new Hero Collection makes it easy for guys to "be the hero" this year. H.Bloom Hero allows guys to set up all of their flower purchases for the year with just one online transaction.
H.Bloom Hero Collection
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