Here’s how Richard Benson saw it, about ten years ago:
“The huge amateur market that consumed 35mm slides has always been a mystery to me. Why did all those people make all those pictures? (Italics mine)… At least with an album of prints we can take the book off the shelf, easily leaf through it a bit, and then put it away again. The slide requires a projector, a dark room, and almost invariably other people, who have been gathered together to participate in the viewing of someone else’s visual history… These little photographic artifacts were only produced for about sixty years… There are literally hundreds of millions of slides getting moldy, being thrown out, and simply being forgotten until a younger generation finds them while cleaning out the old family home. By that time there will be no projectors left, so those too will most likely be discarded. The circumstances of their form will lead to the disappearance—unseen—of a huge portion of photographic history.”
Yes, yes. We know its limitations, and also its allure. I’ll probably buy some and shoot it.
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