Well its happened. The day that we all knew was approaching, the one that would descend upon us like the plague, Leave us nowhere to run and have us ready to sell the shop. No not the Mets missing the playoffs, but close. Chrome, the almost forgotten word in photographers lexicon these days, raised its ugly head to a very young art director last week, a she turned on it like an ugly step child. Alright, so she had never heard of it, but considering its my film of choice and I am very close to it, it was a shocker. Your first time always is. The day is here, the ones born into the digital age are coming home to roost. This is the platform on which many of the great modern photographers based their work, so the far away glaze in her eyes threw me when told her how I work. It was pretty dismaying to find someone in such a position of power? to have never heard or SEEN a positive. I then called it a slide and there was some recognition but it wasn't till I pulled it out and showed her, excuse me, in all its 8x10 glory, that the light bulb went on. Baffled she was. "How do you do photoshop on it, you don't, its all in camera first. " It really was like Christmas morning for a three year. Pure wonderment. Now this wasn't some podunk agency, this was one of the big ones in a large market, and when I showed her the size of the camera, well, if anyone says size doesn't matter.... So this is what we are up against. Everyday someone new and much younger than many of us, joins an agency or magazine and at times it does feel like its back to the drawing board. But hopefully I can use this meeting?, lesson? and parlay it into something at least like a job. For the kiddos all this chrome stuff is new again, little bit like discovering Joy Division 27 years later, and it can be beneficial if you can manipulate it to your advantage but you really do feel father time breathing down you back. Neg people, its not far behind you either.
