Professional or Amateur Film

a designation which may seem offensive by those defensive users. Although not an absolute measurement, it was used by the main film makers for most of their film century.

The character of the professional user gave us the term. They used more film; stored it for shorter times; frequently altered the processing parameters. This market of film, frequently, included a tech-sheet with more technical information than the amateur ideograms, assuming that the professional would interpret them correctly for their need. The professional worked with controlled, or at least knowable light systems and situations.

The professional was expected to enlarge their film in different situations and to much greater degree than the amateur. Professional films were expected to be reprinted, or otherwise re-used more often than the amateur.

Amateurs frequently kept film in a camera over many months. At one mass-processor an informal contest ran: the winner would be the roll of film with the greatest number of year-over-year vacation snaps. More Thanksgivings, etc. The ultimate winner was a 12 exposure roll with a wedding, 8 Thanksgivings and a funeral. It was dropped off for processing at a One-Hour finisher. That is the amateur


making photographic emulsions

any bus can

… only take you so far…

how do i learn?

did gursky make it further than bernd?

non-nutritional meaning of food

finish not just start

not only great starters

“a fortune many times; confidence only once”

In 2006 London’s famous Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press formed an editorial alliance to produce a new series of books. Documents of Contemporary Art combines several features that do not often coincide in publishing:  affordable paperback prices, good design, and impeccable editorial content. Each volume in the series is a definitive anthology on a particular theme, practice, or concern that is of central significance to contemporary visual culture. The artists and writers included in these books, like the guest editors who conceive them, represent the diversity of perspectives, generations, and voices defining art today.

Series editor: Iwona Blazwick

Kosar (4) “The tanning theory has never succeeded in explaining the most remarkable feature [of dichromated colloids]: that colloids containing only very minute amounts of dichromates can be completely hardened, providing that the exposure is sufficiently long.