It strikes me that when new technologies or media appear people sometimes get into an either/or mode that is unwarranted. Newspapers haven't been superceded by internet news, any more than books have been made obsolete by movies and television. The question is always what mix of the new technologies or media will there be? In many ways digital photography is reinvigorating the old analogue medium, and both are enriched by the interplay.(posted 8234 days ago)When a friend offered me all his chemistry and photographic paper for a song (because he was "going digital") I snapped it up, secretly thinking he was a fool. He has never really been satisfied with the quality of his digital reproductions, and I'm still happily cranking out fine prints in my retro darkroom.
On the other hand, I love the networking that digital technology has enabled. These forums and the websites we patronize didn't exist when I first learned darkroom work, and the infrastructure that supports them hadn't yet been created. If I needed some esoteric piece of information, I had to laboriously research it or figure it out on my own. Now I have benefit of the collective experience of thousands of photographers worldwide, almost instantly.
We have the best of both worlds.