Although the photography trade shows are featuring the hottest in digital imaging equipment, such as filmless cameras and electronic printers (darkroom? what's a darkroom?), many of today's photographers are still opting for their Leicas and 24hour film labs. It seems that the advanced technology is there and is widely used by magazine art directors to manipulate photographic images (remember Mirabella's computer generated cover model, who was merely a compilation of several photographic images scanned in and merged together to create a face that didn't really exist-), but at this stage, there is still a lot of refinement needed before the big take-over (where film and processing are eliminated), if there is one. For now it remains much easier to have a photographer capture an image on film than a graphic artist to create one solely on the computer.

Actually, combining the two media is where today's true artistic pioneering lies. Raymond Meier, contributing photographer to all the big fashion books as well as Calvin Klein and Gucci, was among the first to digitize his prints and play with new technology. "From a creative point of view, computers have changed my work completely, since I can shoot today, the next day see the image on my computer and the following day hand it over to the magazine the way I want it. Computers give me a new horizon of ideas that I allow myself to realize."

Meier believes that when photographers know they can digitally manipulate their images, this affects the nature of fashion photography. "If there are imperfections when you are shooting, you know that you can fix them later. This gives you more freedom. At the same time, however, this can be dangerous, because you could start to work sloppy and think 'well, I don't have to worry about her chipped nail polish, the dirty background paper, or the lighting, because I can fix it on the computer.' This could lead to laziness and that's not what photography and computer technology is about. It is about working harder at a vision by using a new tool."