Essay by Matt Suess

I have been asked countless times, “Wow, what type of camera do you use?”, or “Must be some camera that you have”. or “My camera doesn’t take pictures like that”, etc. One time in particular, a gentleman was looking at my work in my booth at an art show and said something along the lines of, “Sure must be a great camera you have to get these great pictures”.

I looked at him for a moment, and responded with a smile, “No. Actually, it was some great photographer who did this.” The expression on his face gave me the feeling that he was thinking that I was trying to pull one over on him, and he smiled while responding, “Sure, but it still bust have been a great camera!” He was fully expecting me to reply, “Yes, you caught me – I have the best camera in the world and that is the only reason why these prints look so good.”

My actual response was, “I am sorry, but it is not just the camera. In fact I can produce beautiful work with any camera, even yours.” His smile dropped and he looked me in the eyes and said, “Come on, you use a Hasselblad.” I replied, “I am sorry to tell you that you are wrong, but you are wrong. I do not use a Hasselblad camera.” At this point, the conversation was over – he thought I was flat out lying to him and the only reason why I have the quality I have was because I used a Hasselblad camera.

What this individual was not able to comprehend is that the camera is just one of many tools for the photographer. It is not the end all, be all.

Is it the high end kitchen utensils that popular chef Emeril uses that makes his dishes so renown? Take him into your kitchen. Would he be able to produce a meal far superior to yours using your own utensils – utensils that may not be the “best in the industry”?

Part of the misconception of, “the better the camera, the better the photo,” comes from the basic fact that nowadays just about everybody has a camera. Everyone has experience taking photos. And yes, everyone takes some photos that perhaps they even surprise themselves with by the way the print turns out. But not as many prints come out as great as they would like. What’s the most obvious thing to blame – their technique? No. It is definitely the camera that took the bad photo. The print doesn’t look anything like what they remember. They assume if they purchased a better, more expensive camera, they would get better photos.

So they buy a more expensive camera and find that, yes, they are now sometimes getting better pictures. Camera quality, at this basic level of photography experience, does indeed play an important factor. Their logical conclusion is: the better the camera the better the print.

"Serenity at Scorton Creek" - Cape Cod, Mass. Over 20 hours of work in my digital darkroom went into the making of this fine art print.

What these individuals do not understand is that, sometimes, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to photography and fine art prints. The camera is simply a tool – a very important one at times for sure – but it is just one of many variables that come into play when producing a fine art print of the utmost quality. The real “magic” comes from the printing. It is with the printing that the artist’s intent fully comes to life. The camera is just a tool used to move one along the path towards the final destination that is the print. A bad print from a Hasselblad can be worse than a good print from a cell phone camera.

I am selling the final print – I am not selling based on the camera I used. If I “fooled” someone into thinking that I used a Hasselblad, is it now all of a sudden an inferior print once known a Hasselblad wasn’t used?

Is it worth less?

Maybe it should be worth more!!

Printing is the most important part of the process for me, and the part that consumes the most amount of time. Countless hours of work go into each and every one of my prints. While there are some images I am able to print with only a few hours of work, others have taken months (not continuous, fortunately) to produce a print I am completely satisfied with. I even have one photo that I worked on, from time to time, over the course of a full year before I was satisfied with the print!

I wasn’t bothered by that gentleman walking out of my booth convinced, in his own beliefs, that I simply had a “really good” camera. In fact, it was a compliment to my printing, technique, experience, composition, vision, creativity, and, the least of which, the camera I used. A great camera is not going to make a great photographer.

I will write future articles discussing the methods and procedures I use in doing my own printing. For those not interested in that, and only want to focus on the camera I use, I will tell you that I currently use a Canon 5D Mark II camera. It is a 21 megapixel digital camera. It’s not a top of the line camera, nor is it a bottom of the line camera. But boy, you should see the pictures this camera takes…

July 2006, Revised August 2009