(Louisiana channel - David Hocney: Photoshop is boring)
[David Hockney] The invention of photography was the invention of chemicals
and in a way, chemical photography is now ended.
It lasted - what? - 160 years.
Now, nobody thought chemical photography would end.
Nobody predicts that, do they?
It ended - it certainly has ended now.
Kodak stopped making fixative about eight years ago, I think.
And the fixative was the invention.
Daguerre did it his way
and in England Fox Talbot, who was playing with cameras,
and meaning, seeing these images -
and remember, they sold them in color: you always see them in color;
they were surprised that the photograph was black and white when they first came out -
but, he said to Sir John Hershaw:
"How can I -- how can we fix this image?"
They could get it on paper, using silver
but it didn't last long.
And in fact, sir John Hershaw said:
"Oh well, if you want to fix it, you need this, this and this"
and wrote out the formula for fixative
that was still being manufactured till eight years ago. (1:34)