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Posted on 10/03/2011 9:26:07 AM PDT by shortstop
One can look at a company as a “scale model” of a company. It may start out on a very good tact, with good economic policy and thinking. It may even prosper for awhile on past glory. But, eventually, with enough of the wrong people in the wrong places at the wrong time, it can begin to collapse, and when it reaches a sort of critical mass of mismanagement, nothing can stop it from winking out of existence.
Modern Art Photography
If we consider the history of creating imagery from primitive to the modern there must be certain timelines that account for how things happened. The ancients in the region recorded their thoughts, left messages and depicted their lives on the canyon walls, in their caves and on any media they found useful. Certainly all cultures found their own way to communicate; the talented few always came forward as their recorders of history. Were these talented few born with the creativity? Or did they develop this talent through intensive training in the technical process?
If we spring forward a thousand years we have the benefit of watching the evolution of the form. Although photography dates back to Leonardo da Vinci's inventions during the Renaissance, the modern camera was invented in the 1830s with daguerreotypes. The first cameras were large and bulky, so people came to the photographer's studio to have their pictures taken. This meant that the main purpose was to record what people looked like, which could be done more quickly and inexpensively than ever before. This has had a profound impact on art, and has prompted many artists to explore new styles. And so, modernism was born.
In painting and printmaking the form evolved into what was called “the new art,” beginning with the impressionists in about 1870. Photography continued recording the accuracy of what people looked like or to record history as evidenced during the Civil War with Mathew Brady. Here in Utah C.R. Savage was one of the first to record the important history. In southern Utah Jack Hillers accompanied John Wesley Powell in 1872 in the explorations of the Grand Canyon.
The science of the form drove their technique. But was it art? Most imagery was posed and not impromptu as evidenced by E.S Curtis and his circle. Images looked stilted and did not leave much to the imagination. But suddenly we spring forward to the turn of the twentieth century and the group formed in New York by Alfred Stieglitz.
Stieglitz was originally a leading figure in the promotion of the idea that photography harbored the same aesthetic potential as painting. He fostered the progress of artistic photography in this direction by showcasing the work of young photographers who challenged the dominant conception of the medium. Instead of showcasing the use of photography as a tool for documenting or depicting the details of nature, these young photographers attempted to show, primarily through imitation of painterly styles, that photography could attain status as an art form.
This new approach to art photography was inspirational for all that followed the form. They strive to do more than record the images of nature, rather they make a serious effort in creating art; art that is beyond simple imagery. This approach to modernism was introduced to the painter Maynard Dixon in 1920 when he met the young New York photographer Dorothea Lange. Dixon began distilling and simplifying his approach.
This period, 1920-1960, brought Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and several other modernists to these regions for the purpose of making fine art photography. These were the purists with serious bias about their art form in black and white. Much of the art occurred in the darkroom. And then there was the life of photographic paper. The argument was that color would not hold. As color was introduced in the late thirties the art photographers held steady with their beliefs about the power of black and white. Several pioneers broke away from the old beliefs as papers improved with newer coatings and a better lifespan. Eliot Porter and David Muench in particular continued with the science of color as an art form.
And then digital happened. All of the old ideas about the art form changed.
After thirty years of work in all the above, Modern Art Photography was born. Suddenly new converts having found their own voices in this new digital world. The technical side of the problem is conquered with powerful technology from Canon and Nikon. The science is now taken care of and it is only left up to the artist to find his own voice in this brave new world.
ub, Copyright 2009
It used to be if you got a job at Kodak you were set for life. Sad to see it’s a dinosaur now.
Companies come, companies go...adapt or die.
I worked there as a software engineer
The woman in charge was an idiot so I told them I was leaving and gave two weeks notice
The idiot woman told me I couldn’t leave. I insisted for the two weeks that I was going. She honestly thought as the boss she could ORDER me to stay. She came from a government agency (20 and out!)
When I didnt show up the next Monday after my two weeks notice I got about 20 phone calls asking where I was, including several telling me I had to come to a meeting they would organize to explain myself.
I told them I didnt work there any more and I was not planning on coming to their meeting. They CALLED me from the meeting...
Then when they found out this idiot woman didnt know anything about writing software and needed to call me back to finish it about a years later, I found out I was on their ‘black list’ because I left and they could not hire me back. (Remember- THEY called ME to come back, because I was the only one who was able to make it work)
Libtards, all of them
Is there a product that I can use with my scanner to scan slides to a larger scale .jpg? I have heard there may be a scanning adapter but have only seen ones that will scan the slide in it’s original size (too small).
I had taken a few hundred slides to a local developer who gave me a break on the per quantity price and did a fantastic job, but when I showed up the next time with a few hundred more slides, the guy that worked with me the first time was no longer there and his manager wouldn’t budge on the cost.
Gee, come to think of it, I hope the first guy didn’t lose his job on my account... ;-)
Those who still have grandad’s stock certificates for E.H.& T Anthony are laughing in their hats.
Proof that there is no “Too big to fail” but instead, Too big to change.
” I have not seen a roll of Verichrome Pan 127 roll film on the shelf in many years.”
Ha! Nobody has. I still have an old 127 box camera. I used my share of Verichrome Pan 120, though. It made a great b&w proofing film for Ektacolor. I’ll miss Kodak. My whole Vietnam tour was recorded with many rolls Tri-X and a Voightlander Vito.
Out of curiosity, why? I liked the speed they had.
Having said that, in a previous job, one engineer told me she worked
on that product line at Kodak, and said she was given a month to
choose a component, something on the order of a resistor. She
decided she wanted to work in a more challenging company.
Wow... if that's true, then Kodak deserves to be shuttered.
“A real manufacturing facility”? It had its own Zip Code and Fire Department. It was the largest user of Silver in the world. Flat Cars of Silver would be lined up on the railroad tracks.
That’s funny because I had a similar experience with a female boss who had the IQ of dried dog shit.
She wound up getting canned anyway so I didn’t have to resort to leaving.
Fortunately, Lee-Neilsen keeps the Stanley and Bailey lineage alive and thriving.
I dabble in astronomy, and saw a notice a few years ago that some b/w astro-friendly films were no longer in production. Can’t remember the specifics.
My wife’s aunt’s boyfriend (practically my twin, in terms of affiliation) was the retired director of public relations for Kodak. Around twenty years ago he arranged a tour of one particular plant in downtown Rochester for me, completely without any prompting from me, and it would have seemed ungracious for me to decline. It was an interesting tour of a huge, buzzing, and largely automated facility. My wife had cousins in Rochester and they all either worked for Xerox of Kodak. Everything he says about Kodak people is true: wonderful, gracious Americans, all.
Excellent point!!!
Remember when Kodak was sued by Polaroid and LOST over their instant pictures?
Kodak had the classic error. They did not know the business they were in. Even when it was staring them in the face. (remember the phrase “Kodak moment?” It was because film cost money and your images per roll were limited.)
They ALMOST had an idea with the printer with the cheeper ink but then failed again.
Perhaps the reason Kodak failed is the same reason Pan Am ultimatly failed.
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