TO PERFECTION AND BACK AGAIN

By MICHAEL PERKINS

THE FUTURIST JOHN NESBITT, in his classic book 1982 Megatrends, made a solid point about how humans adapt to rapid progress; that is, how they maintain their equilibrium in the face of accelerating change. He coined the phrase “high tech, high touch”, a term that defined a kind of spring forward /fall back cadence in modern life. In Nesbitt’s analysis, people who become swamped by overwhelming “high tech” revert back to the comfort of more tactile experiences from previous times, embracing the comfort of “high touch”.

It’s still a good explanation for the tug of war in photography between the “hands on” warmth of analog and the “all things are possible” allure of digital. We find ourselves, with present tools, going all the way to perfection, and then back again. And then back again and then back again.

An early Technicolor camera, of the same typed used to film The Wizard Of Oz.

A recent video on cinematography in movies put forth the idea that today’s films don’t look as “cinematic” as features from pre-digital times, that the very idea of technically removing flaws or inconsistencies from the exposure and lighting of movies makes them look somewhat lifeless, so evenly perfect as to be sterile. The creators of the video drew an especially stark comparison between the lush, tonally rich look of 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz versus the somewhat desaturated, somewhat lifeless look of 2024’s Wicked. Are we merely suffering a fit of nostalgia, or is there actually something that today’s tech is over-polishing, over-supervising images for today’s market, whereas the “flaws” of earlier photographers somehow remain alluring, even beloved?

Before you struggle to answer those questions, a caution: your answers are only your answers. What digital offers for some can seem seem like the ultimate perfection of all past problems, while, for others of us, the problems themselves, from tonal balance to lighting for effect, contain a way to stamp your personal style on something that might otherwise be sterile. Everyone who makes an image decides where to plot their location on the line between “high tech” and “high touch”, deciding how much perfection is just enough, or too much. Photographs need a healthy mixture of “wizard” and “ahhhs”.