Jorgen,
I very much agree with most you say. But IMO the best approach today is still to use technology that is available to achieve outstanding goals. I admire both Nick Brandt and David Yarrow, but if I would want or need to replicate or create any of their work (which I most probably would not master) I would prefer the David Yarrow way.
But I most probably would not (maybe never) go back to film anymore.
Peter
With the kind of work they do, equipment becomes secondary, and price of the gear uninteresting. Creating the kind of photos that they create takes enormous skill, time and even financial resources. The type of camera is a creative choice and probably not a financial one as it is for most of us normal people. I have neither the skill nor the resources to even attempt to do the kind of work that they do. What I do know though, is that if I'm going to perform my best when taking photos, I must use equipment that
I feel comfortable with, that has ergonomics and functionality that suit
my style of working. If that equipment generates a 6MP or a 150MP file or a black and white negative becomes secondary, unless I'm going to print very, very large. For most people will look at my images, not at my pixels.
That is also where the F6 enters the scene. Because to me, and many other photographers, it's a camera that to the extreme does not obstruct photography. It does what it's supposed to do, and in an unusually unintrusive manner. I don't need 3 zillion focusing points. I need
one, one that works. I think the F6 has 11. That's luxury. There's only 36 images on a roll. Compared to the number of good photos I take on an average day, that's a lot. I have to wait a couple of days to see the results. Good. Then the scene has had time to become distant and the photo stands for what it is, a photo of reality, not an attempt to duplicate reality.
For Nick Brandt and David Yarrow's photos are not what you or anybody else will see if you go to Africa. It's
their artistic interpretation of what
they saw there. That's why people pay a lot of money for their photos. Because the two of them see things that the buyers won't see, even if it appeared right in front of their eyes. That's what being a great photographer is.
Sorry for being bombastic, but to me, this is very close to the core of photography.