“Sharpness is a Bourgeois Concept”
This quote from Henri Cartier-Bresson captures aspects of the film-versus-digital argument. By modern standards, many of the great photographs from the film era are grainy, unsharp, and lacking in extreme resolution. But have you ever looked at a photograph by Cartier-Bresson or Robert Frank and placed your nose against it to examine its critical sharpness? I doubt it. You take in the overall look and meaning of the image viscerally, emotionally, and thoughtfully. Many film photographs are simply softer than their digital counterparts. Lenses were not as good, darkroom technology had its flaws, many shots were handheld with slower films, and, as a rule, photographers were concerned with the subject and not ...
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