film is not dead
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
We live in this era where the future of technology is constantly booming. Gone are the days where Minority Report and Zenon-esque technology seems like a distant dream (okay, maybe not Minority Report, but I don’t watch a lot of movies okay). Now we have phones that are capable of shooting DSLR-like quality photos with 200 megapixels! That's insane. It's hard to really sit back and just appreciate what we already have because technology continues to expand so rapidly. This is it. This is the future. We are living in it every step of the way. We're seeing the world change into the very science fiction we used to read about. It's cool, but with all these technological upgrades, we start to lose a sense of beauty in the simplicity of how things were. We lose a sense of romance.
Thanks to Instagram, a lot of people have been carefully trying to curate their feeds; taking photographs in a more thoughtful way and actually thinking about their subject matter. That's honestly pretty impressive. This one app kinda changed the photography game forever. The masses are starting to understand the beauty of photography and that it's not just about pointing your camera at something and taking a picture. You can legit create art. You can create personality. You can spark a conversation. That's the power of photography. Now, with that said, it's funny because people are also starting to see the beauty of photography in a more old school sense. Film is getting popular again. Apps like VSCO have definitely helped produce that film-like filter that all the trendy kids are starting to put on their photos. If you don't know about this app, it's basically a photo-editing app that specializes in old school film-esque filters. It gives back a sense of nostalgia in an age where digital is everything.
But VSCO wasn't exactly the first in the game to bring back this old school love for film. We've been seeing it for quite some time, with the popularity of INSTAX cameras. Fujifilm is one of the pioneers of film photography, being known for producing some of the best colors in photographic film. They brought back the Polaroid hype that we knew from the 90's and repackaged it in a way that would be targeted to younger people. It was quite genius, actually. The Instax Mini cameras were a hit among youth, thanks to Instagrammers showing off their super cute selfies with this new instant film. It was "new" to the younger generation, so it was interesting and different. But to the older generation (myself included), it brought back a sense of nostalgia. I remember having an i-zone camera and thinking I was the sh*t. I remember the anticipation of going to the pharmacy to turn in my roll of film (okay, I sound really old here…) and waiting a solid hour for all of them to develop. Nothing quite like taking 26 pictures of yourself and your friends, only to have 5 of them come out not overexposed, blurry, or — wtf is that?
My mom has all these old photographs in binders from the 70's, 80's, and 90's, and it made me really miss seeing photos in tangible form. Everything is digital now, but digital isn't that special if you think about it. We delete photos all the time when we think it's not good enough. Film photography wasn't about if photos were or weren't "good enough". It captured a moment. And when developed, it captured that moment forever.
This is a photo of my mom and dad, from the late 70's. It's kind of terrible quality because I took it about five years ago, on my old Sidekick phone (lol). My old man hasn't been in our lives for the last 18 years, but this photograph was just so raw. It's so real. It captured a moment so perfectly. This was two people who were in love and who were enjoying their time together. Film is romantic. There is a certain aura about an old film photograph that just can't quite be replaced by digital. It never will be the same, even if this photograph was recreated on a digital format. It just wouldn't feel right.
There's no soul in digital photography. Don't get me wrong, digital photography produces some AMAZING imagery, and there's so much more you can do with digital than you can with analog, but it's just different. It gives a different feel, entirely. Film replicators like VSCO and Mastin Labs, try their best to replicate that film look, but at the end of the day, it's still digital. The magic isn't quite the same. But there are some pros and cons to shooting film, and I'm finding that out very quickly.
Pros of shooting film:
You get the authentic look of film's color reproduction and quality.
You can develop film and keep negatives, so that you're pretty much able to preserve that photograph in a tangible form.
You can shoot manually, without batteries. Most cameras from this era use mechanical shutters, meaning you can take a photograph on the camera without needing batteries. In fact, if the camera does require batteries, it's mostly just for the electronic light meters that give better and more accurate exposures. Everything else is manual, including the lens.
Film cameras are often found in thrift stores and flea markets for practically nothing ($5-10!) It's way cheaper than a digital camera. (However, sites like Ebay, will charge a lot more for the popular film cameras.)
Cons of shooting film:
Everything is manual. It's a pro and a con, in some ways. If you're not used to shooting manual, then it's going to feel like way more work than you're used to.
All the lenses are manually focused, so you won't just be able to walk around and point and shoot.
You have to buy actual film. Purchasing film isn't difficult or anything, but it does get expensive over time, whereas if you just shoot digital, you'll have infinite amount of photos you can shoot, as long as your memory card allows.
You also have to go and get the photos developed, after you're done shooting. And considering that film labs aren't as popular as they used to be, finding a local one, might be a drive for some.
One of the things I often get asked about camera stuff is PRICING. If it seems like photography is an expensive ass hobby, it's because it is. But that doesn't mean you can't get into it. See, that's another thing that appealed to me about these analog cameras. They are 35mm cameras and are compact. I mean, yeah, you have to buy the film, but the cameras themselves are quite cheap, and you can take some spectacular quality photos with them. You have to put in a little more work of course, but that just that just makes your photograph mean something more. Also, another somewhat "pro" of film photograph, is that because you have to buy rolls of film each time, you become more thoughtful of what you're shooting. It makes each and every photograph count. Another neat thing is, most DSLR cameras now have adapters that you can buy for pretty cheap on ebay or Amazon, that let you use manual film lenses! I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t shot much film yet, but having some legacy film lenses to shoot with is SUPER FUN. These are lenses created in the 1950s, and the picture quality is so beautiful! Considering some lenses can cost the price of a car, it’s worth to invest in some manual lenses too.
Nostalgia is a big factor for me, as it’s a major inspiration for my creativity. And I was certainly not a photographer as a 12-year-old with my super cool i-Zone camera and one-time use cameras from Rite Aid. Anyone can take film photos, and that’s another beauty of it. You didn’t need to be artsy fartsy to take a good photo. Even the blurry ones looked intentionally artistic. Film cameras were simply trying to capture moments in our everyday lives, and one of the best things about photography is that it can capture the beauty in the mundane. With developed photos, you didn’t just have a visual memory, you had one you could physically touch. And I don’t know about you, but to me, that makes every photograph pretty damn special.
[Originally posted 2017]