Old Tech

I never considered myself a collector of music, movies and the various formats in which they were produced and distributed for decades, although like others I am a consumer and I have purchased, watched and listened to those creative products all my life.

I do not have a carefully acquired, extensive library of books with words bound in paper that I have read or plan to read, despite having read books since I was a kid.

I am also not a collector of cameras and photographic prints, despite being deeply involved in photography since the 1970s, having bought many cameras and printed literally thousands of my own photographs.

Music and Movies

Nevertheless, I value presentation and I understand the appeal of having a physical item that contains great, artistic visualizations and performances. It adds so much more and it broadens the experience. Acquiring music in formats that are accompanied by liner notes, photos, booklets, album covers, CD cases, cassettes, etc., are all part of the true history of music.

For me, personal consumption really began with music. I remember my parents and later myself buying 45 rpm records and LPs (long playing) albums. In the following decades, I purchased cassette tapes and owned boom boxes. I carried a Sony Walkman and walked through the streets of Manhattan with that cool technology.

Movies also became available for home viewing. Originally, we watched movies that were created on actual film and used film projectors. Later, videotapes became a more widely used format, borne from television. One of my first major photography jobs in the 1970s, at a major corporation, involved my running their audio-visual equipment for meetings and presentations, which involved videotapes, microphones, speakers, video players, televisions and conference room projectors. In the 1980s, home movie cameras were widespread. In the 1990s, I owned personal video cameras that used videotapes.

Technology evolved and so did I along with it. But very often it was a matter of getting used to better or more convenient formats, even if it sometimes meant buying music or a movie for a second or even a third time.

For a long period of time, like most Americans, I bought VHS tapes and owned a VHS player and recorder. I still have an old, almost non-functioning VHS machine since I still have most of my old tapes. I am far from alone in this. We managed okay in the days before the Internet but now the tapes collect dust, yet they contain one of a kind material that I do not want to lose permanently.

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When CDs came out, followed by DVDs, I bought them and up until recently I had a standalone DVD player. DVDs could also be played on computers and laptops. I have been thinking of buying another DVD player one day so that the music and movies I own in those formats can still be accessed in their original format. I also remember going to Tower Records in the Village or in Times Square and enjoying the experience of buying music, surrounded by other people doing the same thing, while new and old music was being played in the store's speakers.

Digital files and streaming formats have replaced all of the above. The new formats have many advantages and they have introduced new options for acquiring music and movies for long term or short term use.

However, when I download music in my apartment alone, or if I stream music, I don't really receive any other item along with the music. It's not the same as in the past. At least with YouTube I can see a performance. But they are no longer a physical item and they are just files on a computer or phone. I can listen to music or watch movies on any of my devices without needing separate, dedicated players but it does lack part of the experience that I, along with everyone else, had in the past.

Photography

Photography has also evolved greatly and the way I took photos early in my career vs. now are completely different. Back then, I used mostly black and white film but also color negative film and color slide (transparency) film. They were the world in which I trained and grew up as a photographer. I printed thousands of black and white 8 X 10 prints in my own darkroom which were used by publishers and reproduced in books. My color images inside or on the covers of books were originally taken on transparencies. It was costly and time consuming but it was also just normal, the way we did things.

I have had to scan all those negatives and transparencies into my computer to make them available on new platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., etc, and on my online blogs. They can be printed later on new kinds of paper after being altered and improved on my computer.

Nevertheless, I still own film cameras that I used in the 1980s and 1990s. They mean so much to me and I have a personal history with them. I took some of my greatest and most published images with my film cameras.

It is true that digital photography is far, far less expensive and much, much more convenient. These are undeniable positives now that digital cameras are offering quality that equals film. I have been using digital cameras for more than two decades and I have had several models including a professional one that cost thousands of dollars. I have created movies with them. My computer, along with certain software, functions as my darkroom. Even the images and videos from cell phones are improving although they have not reached a professional level quality as of the present time.

Transformations

But the old technology will be a part of me and other people for years to come, in memory if not in daily practice. Technology will always march on and come up with new ways of creating and distributing content. We didn't have the Internet decades ago and I don't want to go backwards if it meant losing such transformative technology. I don't mind technological improvements and I believe in keeping up.

It's fascinating that many younger people now seem to be valuing vinyl records and CDs. The items carry a certain "cool" and perhaps make them feel as though they are connecting on a deeper level. Sometimes it feels a bit like a fad or snobbery if one of today's teenagers brags about using a format that they didn't actually experience the same way their parents and grandparents did. They have so many other options that weren't available to their older family members. But I appreciate the effort which could also be viewed as respect. I come from a generation that valued the earlier formats. There is a history to technology and it helps to know the old which enhances understanding of the new.