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Can You Stay Analogue In A Digital Era?
In a world where everything is becoming digital, Jack investigates how some people are choosing to remain analogue… .
As a filmmaker whose work lives predominantly in the digital world, I find it inspiring to find people who still find the drive and inspiration to remain analogue. It amazes me to find such stunning work coming from such a dated practice, because I love technology and pushing the boundaries with what’s possible visually in my photography and film work.
As a filmmaker I make things using physical laws captured in a digital medium ie. An analogue piece of art, but where it exists is in the digital realm. The things I make with my hands and my eyes and my mind. What I’m trying to do is reconcile that the two spaces/mediums, although different are not separate.
Analogue means a relation to, or of likeness to. Commonly we tend to use the term to mean something made haptically, or without the use of computing
Although the way the information is stored is through a digital medium, the photographic principles have not changed and are still strictly analogue. It’s important for us in a world that’s becoming increasingly digital, that the things we create are still physical in a sense. Dexterity is one of the key components of creation that keeps it physical and somewhat belonging in the analogue realm. If a piece is created automatically through a computers processing of data rather than having been shaped by the artist’s finesse, it lacks the deeper connection that artists crave from their work.
I tracked down Rory Blair, who still lingers in the analogue world of photography. What he told me was more insightful and inspiring that I could have possibly predicted,
Rory Blair (right) with fellow photographer Robert McCloud (left)
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
24 years of age, hark from London but feel less and less like a Londoner.
I graduated from a photography BA last year and am now flirting with pretention on an MFA. Part-time wedding tent erecter, part-time artist, part-time adventurer, procrastinator, homemaker, lover, complainer. I feel like I’m the protagonist for somebody else’s story.
What aspects of your life have you been able to keep analogue?
I have an analogue life – which isn’t to say digital doesn’t exist for me. I couldn’t exist in our society without it, and I’m not opposed to it, I’m opposed to its replacing of analogue means of production and creation. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but exist as separate entities with separate abilities.
I like to feel my work as I make it and I like real chemical/physical changes to take place. There may be stages of digital manipulation within that, utilised specifically for their strengths; I can get more from a film image if I scan it, edit digitally and then digitally print – as the software is better than the analogue equivalent.
What aspects of a digital life have you accepted and succumbed to?
I have an iPhone and now take a large chunk of my photos on it. It’s a good reference point, and along with my notebook is a trusty source of archiving my thoughts and oddities. I’ve got a computer, a laptop, a TV, a digital radio… I use social media to talk to people on the other side of the world, some I’ve never even met. I love Instagram as a platform and tool to disseminate what I’ve been playing with.
Rory processing film
How do you personally define ‘analogue’?
Analogue has come to mean – for me – a specific process or way of thinking that remains close and true to reality. The hand has to be present in as many stages of development as possible. It grants you a closer relationship to where you are in the world and what’s actually around you. Analogue takes time. It allows you to think about what’s actually going on. It accepts limitation and flaws as the ebb and flow that is the beauty of life, rather than cleaning up and removing these things. Analogue is imperfect, digital is impersonal.
With the growing digitisation of analogue things such as watches, books, cameras and cars, what do you predict will remain analogue to the masses?
Look at the popularity of film cameras, vinyl records, bespoke/artisan creations, reclaimed wood, antiquities/retro/vintage items. Perhaps unwittingly people are searching for ‘the real’ that they’re losing from their lives. But I don’t say that with certainty.
God’s Finger by Rory Blair
To have my questions answered I had to send them in letter form, which was ironically negotiated via Facebook message and texts. I found that my preconceived notions of what it was to remain analogue and the ethos behind it were completely wrong. It’s just an attempt to keep a level of dexterity and to keep the creative process human. What I learned from Rory inspired me so much that I loaded up my old Olympus OM2 with a fresh real of film and ran outside.
What’s your style? Are you strictly analogue or digital or even both? Let us know on any of our social media outlets at – @rifemag
Did you like Rory’s work? Check him out at:
If you want to get involved in photography in Bristol, check out the Young Photographers Club from the Creative Youth Network
Related Links:
Is Instagram Killing The Art Of Photography? – by Cai Burton
How Not To Suck At Photography – by Shamil Ahmed
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Smartphone Filmmaking Masterclass Episode 1
Ten Movies That Accurately Predicted The Future
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About the author
Jack Edwards
Since getting my first camera capable of video at 13, I have been making fun videos mostly about life and sports. Eventually I decided that I wanted to pursue filmmaking as a career and began taking my films and video much more seriously. I took on photography, media and film studies at college and used those A level’s to get myself into Falmouth University to study Film. I began creating videos and trying to market myself as a freelance filmmaker. I had some successes with small-scale product advertisements for online use such as the ‘Beach Buddy App’ which featured in the Ignite Cornwall Business Start Up Competition. I found a lot of enjoyment from creating event videos, which eventually developed into a good earner for myself and gave me some fantastic jobs filming in London for ‘Drum & Bass Arena’s 2013 Album Launch Party and ‘This is Dubstep’’s Action On Hearing Loss Fundraiser. I created a Facebook group called ‘Anamorphic Shooters’ which I have no been administrating for the last year and a half, which has now grown to have over 1,000 members who contribute daily. For the remainder of my internship at the company I was involved in conference filming jobs, creating a pitch for the RNLI to create an hour long TV piece documentary about the Penlee lifeboat station and filmed another two PWA competitions in Sylt and New Caledonia, taking me further around the globe than I had even been in my life. From the age of ten I dreamt of one day being a cameraman that would travel the world taking photos and making films. I always imagined I’d be 40 before it ever happened, but at the age of 22 I found myself travelling 11,000 miles around the world and getting paid to do it. I have now moved back to Bristol, and am looking to keep up the momentum of the last year and keep developing and growing as a professional. I am hoping to bring my tenacity and experience to a new company and to offer my video making skills in anyway possible in order to experience new things and tell more stories, as to me film is the strongest tool we have for helping people relate and empathise, and what I call the ‘Empathy Canon’.
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