My transition from analog to digital photography took place over just a few years, roughly from 2005 to 2011. It began with the teaching of my former student (and later colleague teacher) Manos Lykakis, whom I invited to assist me in technical lessons about digital technology, which I was unfamiliar with. I attended his teaching several times. I must admit, I never fell in love with Photoshop. It seemed unnecessarily excessive. However, I absolutely loved Lightroom. It changed my life. The sequence of changes followed these stages.
Digitization of my selected negatives - Complete abandonment of the darkroom - Familiarization and study of Lightroom - Digitization of all souvenir photos - Digitization of contact sheets from the analog era - Digitization of thousands of slides used in lessons - Complete abandonment of analog cameras - Sale of all analog cameras and equipment (fortunately, there are nostalgists)
I never missed the analog era. The benefits that digital technology has brought (for me at least) are (in no particular order) the following.
Reconnection with the process of editing and printing, something I had delegated to others for years due to boredom - The ability to perform edits once reserved for skilled technicians - Endless possibilities for sorting, grouping, studying, and utilizing photos - Excellent quality with affordable cameras, lenses, and other equipment - Zero cost of producing files - The end of my love affair with cameras as we need to replace them every few years, and since excellent photos can be taken with software and inexpensive tools - Unimaginable ease of communication from the old days - among many other things.
The disadvantages of digital technology are numerous and have to do with the other side of the conveniences it offers. The plethora of options, ease of use, and low to zero cost require a photographer equipped with greater knowledge and more cultivated thought to choose among so many possibilities offered by various programs and computers, along with the infinite information on the internet. However, I believe that one (small) advantage of my older age is that in combination with a few extra pieces of knowledge, I can more easily (?) avoid the traps and distortions that accompany this exciting new technology.
As for the security of files, I believe there is no comparison to the past. Today, I feel much safer than before. We once had to protect a precious negative, the destruction of which would erase every trace of our work. Water, fire, mold, and other similar threats were a constant danger, and we spent hours and money to improve the conditions for preserving it. Today, secure backups allow us to sleep peacefully. The continuously improving storage media do not frighten us, as we have learned to switch from one to another easily and each time feel greater security for our precious files. The only thing I have not yet reconciled with is the cloud. Maybe because it refers to an afterlife.
My photos (artistic, souvenir, educational, medical, bureaucratic, etc.) are identically copied onto 6-7 hard drives located in different parts of two residences, and one of these always accompanies me inside the backpack I carry on my back. And as technology changes, so will our backups.
The security and survival over time of my prints seems trivial. Prints are merely traces of a photograph, which can be identically reproduced (especially now in the digital era) indefinitely. If our concern is about sales arguments, we can simply offer a replacement guarantee. The security of an old souvenir photo is better ensured by digitization than ever before. If we are interested in it as an object and not for what it shows, then we are talking about a fetish or a cult object, and the problem shifts to entirely different areas.
The question of whether I consider it important to preserve any of my work is existential and philosophical, not technological. My work will be preserved after my death by anyone who finds it precious. And at some point, it will be lost if no one values it anymore. And as long as it is valued, there will always be new technologies that allow for easier, cheaper, and safer preservation.
Plato Rivellis