What I like about Michael Reichmann is that his work spans everything from galleries to commercial jobs to workshops, that he cares about photography, and that he understands and uses the right tool for the job. This gives him, and his opinions, a lot of context. I don’t always “agree” with what he says, but that’s not the point. The point is that you can learn a lot from his observations to help make decisions to suit your own work. Maybe he is looking longer term; maybe shorter-term. Decide for yourself. Since he got snowed in, he makes his PMA 2008 observations from atop his guru-peak (Toronto, eh?).
I think his commentary on lenses reflects a long-standing discontent with wide-angle glass. Personally I’ve owned and returned/eBay-ed a few wide angle zooms. Seems like you always have to do some work in post to get the fringing out. Maybe we’ll see advances on this front in 2008/09.
But it’s always about the photography, and Michael closes well:
“Colour exists in our heads, it is not an absolute, and it therefore demands interpretation by our minds and hearts. This is what lies at the core of being a photographer today.
But whether these new tools and their associated freedoms will enable us to produce better photographs is a question to ponder and for a future discussion.”
