thechrisproject photography

July 24 at the Haggarty Museum in Milwaukee - Stephen Shore speaks at 6pm about his exhibition opening that day and continuing until September 28th.

Until September 1st Gilbert and Geroge at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Related video via Conscientious

Until September 15th, Lee Freidlander’s work will be at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Review at The Online Photographer

August 14th, 6pm,  John Shimon and Julie Lindemann speak at the opening of Unmasked and Anonymous: Shimon and Lindemann Consider Portraiture, which runs until November 30th.

October 30th 6:15pm, Jen Davis speaks at  the Milwaukee Art Museum.  Jen’s work is featurd in Unmasked and Anonymous.  I’ve seen Jen’s work at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and enjoyed it a lot.

What has digital done new? Make uglier versions of captured light than we could before? Perhaps, but it’s lowered the barrier of entry for photography, and I personally think that’s a great thing. I wouldn’t be here without that. But what I’ve really been wanting is some new, original paradigms in cameras, and I don’t feel like there’s been much of that yet. But imagine if you could shoot 8 stops faster because the sensor could render that light level without noise? Imagine being able to select the aperture or focal point after taking the picture. Or being able to apply polarization after taking the picture. How about a rock-solid body/mirror/viewfinder with replaceable CPU and sensor?

I feel like digital cameras have just been mimicking and barely keeping up with film technology as far as image quality and enjoyability go. They excel in some areas, like high ISO (and they’re getting better and better there), and they definitely have a convenience factor that can’t be denied. But they have yet to totally eclipse film in a number of areas.

Here’s what I’d really like to see in the next three years: a DSLR with a back that looks like an iPhone, complete with touchscreen and 3G internet connection. I think this would be a godsend for photojournalists and other people working on tight deadlines. Imagine a great interface for weeding down a large set of pictures and performing simple corrections like white balance, curves, and sharpening on the camera. Think Lightroom or Aperture Lite, running on an iPhone taped to the back of a camera. And that’s not even forward-thinking technology, that’s just combining some existing thing together.

Mike Johnston (do I quote him too much?) said this a few days ago:

I’ve opined elsewhere that one of the great disappointments of the digital age thus far is that, after all the creative furor of its cradle period, digital has settled right back down to where camera design was in 1990—to a norm of Wunderplastik SLRs and dinky point-and-shoots, the exceptions being few and far between (some of the exceptions being the same exceptions that existed then, at least in terms of form—even down to a virtual replica M6, only digital this time). I was expecting, and certainly hoping, that digital would open up whole new vistas in camera design, and create whole new categories of cameras. Some of them I’ve even defined myself (the “DMD,” I mean), to little effect. That very much appeared to be starting to happen back in the early part of this decade. But then it fizzled. The market might or might not be infinite in its wisdom, but it sure as hell is conservative!

Anyway, I hope to see some great improvements in the digital camera market. I hope to see them at least cover some ground that film has already covered. Let’s see a decent digital rangefinder that’s under $4k! I want my Canonet in digital form!

Here’s a picture that has nothing to do with any of this: