The Renaissance of Film Photography among Young People

[Tom-Thomas]

The attitude that film photography is a fad with zeroing in on the younger generation and how it is anecdotally naive drives away the new members of the community.

No. no, no. I don't want to drive away anyone who has become interested in film photography or to discourage anyone from shooting film. Not at all. As I mentioned in the first sentence in the opening post, I think that this revival is helping in a great way the survival of film photography. Thus, the more people are shooting film, the merrier I am.

The reason that I focus on the youngsters is NOT because of any objection or contempt against novices. Instead it is because the revival of interest in film photography is mainly seen among young people. At least this is my observation. I think, for many of us of the older generation who have a love for photography have never left film photography to begin with — not completely anyway — and as such there is no "revival of interest" to speak of as we have always maintained an interest in it.

A top priority of this forum should be to welcome the young ones who have an interest, not to make them feel insecure.

You are right, of course. And to be clear, I have never mocked or showed disdain or otherwise made any novice feel insecure or ashamed because of his/her nescience of the knowledge and skills needed for shooting film. However, when a person doesn't t even expend the little effort to learn at least the very basics (how to load a roll of film for example) of the film photography, it's hard for me to believe that this person has a genuine appreciation for it. From my POV, this behaviour indicates this person to be a hipster who chases after a trend more than an enthusiast who genuinely enjoys the process.

[Tom-Thomas]

Hi, Tom-Thomas. As you may have seen from my recent thread relating to this subject, I see it rather differently. There are always fads, of course, and this certainly has a large component of that, as your anecdotal observations illustrate. One can view many of the countless YouTube videos/channels on film photography and infer the same. (I don’t visit Facebook, TikTok, or other so-called social media, so I don’t have much to say about them. I don’t watch TV either, but that’s another story.) However, there are other components to the picture, of a more serious nature, and time will tell how far or extensively they may take hold among a certain percentage of enthusiast photographers internationally.

My view of the overall situation involves more than I can go through here. I would suggest, however, that a confluence of economic and social factors has been heading for quite some time toward an major cultural inflection point, at which matters may turn one way or another. One such direction would be a new appreciation for the reality, that we human beings need a number of physical things to meet our needs, including food, clothing, shelter, energy sources, and so forth, and that a need exists to return to certain standards for their production and organization. Such a change relies on policy issues that lie outside the purpose of this forum, so I will not say more on them here.

The nascent, natural increase of concern during the past decade and more, over this physical basis of our existence, I believe, is part of what informs at least the more serious of those finding, or returning to, film photography, whether they are conscious of it or not. As I mentioned in the other thread, one hears a clear refrain among many such enthusiasts, voicing an enjoyment of slowing down, participating in the craft, anticipating the results, and valuing the physical products, i.e., prints. I don’t believe it to be confined to photography. I hear similar voicings among educators at all levels, as well as among people in all sorts of professions who have tired of the shallowness and blitz factors of the media barrage in general and are finding pathways involving more of an investment of their intellect and deeper emotions.

There are certainly generational differences at play, yielding the kinds of behavior you have witnessed and reported. Again, I think it would be inappropriate for me to say too much about that in this forum. In any case, I think there is reason for more optimism than might arise from your observations.

You are a lot more optimistic than I am. I hope you are right, though. For sure, there are some newcomers to film photography who possess a sincere passion, enjoyment and appreciation for the process. However, from my own observations, they are the minority in this renaissance. I hope I am wrong.

[Tin Can]

As most here I shot film all my life, tiny format!

Then I got excited about DIGI 1999, spending oddles on tiny NIKON that broke. I carry on to this day, DIGGI GOOD!

However, when I joined here, the date is on the left, I saw ALL REAL PROS selling ALL their gear for cheap. I bought

So I heartily began to learn as I knew nothing beyond 35mm, even shot the same Pentax H1 40 years

I couldn't load sheet film for months. I have never been able to load steel roll film reels. My hands are delicate claws

My bathroom DR was a problem then, but now I process film nearly anywhere

Still learning everyday!

The Kids Are Alright

WE give them a World of SHIT

[jnantz]

You are a lot more optimistic than I am. I hope you are right, though. For sure, there are some newcomers to film photography who possess a sincere passion, enjoyment and appreciation for the process. However, from my own observations, they are the minority in this renaissance. I hope I am wrong.

silver nitrate and kosher salt will always be around. it's really not that hard to make one's own photo emulsion, whenever I do it it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.
YMMV of course. So if the revolution isn't televised, I can put myself in the driver seat and it will be live.

[goamules]

Since my kids were young I've been a very active LF film and wetplate photographer and camera collector. They've been models for me, and attended shows, and hear about every new camera or lens find. None have more than a passing interest, and none take any film photographs (though all 3 do like other antiques and use some of them). They are in their 20s and 30s now. Any could easily borrow one of my 35mms, many "fashionable" and cool looking rangefinders. But they haven't. None of their friends, many in IT and science careers shoot film either. I'd say maybe 1 out of 500 young people get into film. So it's not really a renaissance. It's that the internet has sites for any hobby, no matter how uncommon. Like collectors of balls of string, or ice fishing.

Why? The trouble and cost of developing outweigh the "cool factor" they'd get carrying or using a camera. I take that back, the only film cameras I got them into were the Fuji Instax (mini polaroid type film) cameras for a year or two. But those are all very cheap looking, and their film is over a dollar a shot. Many young people have little money for this type of recreation.

[Ulophot]

You are a lot more optimistic than I am. I hope you are right, though. For sure, there are some newcomers to film photography who possess a sincere passion, enjoyment and appreciation for the process. However, from my own observations, they are the minority in this renaissance. I hope I am wrong.

The nature of a renaissance is that it is led by a few exceptional individuals with vision and insight. So with the great Arab Renaissance and individuals such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the Florentine Renaissance and such as Nicholas of Cusa, Brunelleschi and Leonardo. The renaissance of film photography will, I expect, hardly be so sweeping; rather, in my view, one small aspect -- and it may remain quite small -- of a broader reawakening of other values. Seeds have been planted, but only a few do the hard work of farming.

[Alan Klein]

The attitude that film photography is a fad with zeroing in on the younger generation and how it is anecdotally naive drives away the new members of the community. A top priority of this forum should be to welcome the young ones who have an interest, not to make them feel insecure. Film photography is magic. I wasn’t there but it’s hard to believe the last generation did not “suffer” from the same points above, the luxury was that the norm was film so it’s harder to be uneducated.

The young are out shooting pictures. They don't have time for forums.

[Alan Klein]

Since my kids were young I've been a very active LF film and wetplate photographer and camera collector. They've been models for me, and attended shows, and hear about every new camera or lens find. None have more than a passing interest, and none take any film photographs (though all 3 do like other antiques and use some of them). They are in their 20s and 30s now. Any could easily borrow one of my 35mms, many "fashionable" and cool looking rangefinders. But they haven't. None of their friends, many in IT and science careers shoot film either. I'd say maybe 1 out of 500 young people get into film. So it's not really a renaissance. It's that the internet has sites for any hobby, no matter how uncommon. Like collectors of balls of string, or ice fishing.

Why? The trouble and cost of developing outweigh the "cool factor" they'd get carrying or using a camera. I take that back, the only film cameras I got them into were the Fuji Instax (mini polaroid type film) cameras for a year or two. But those are all very cheap looking, and their film is over a dollar a shot. Many young people have little money for this type of recreation.

If there are let's say 2 billion children in the world, and 1 in 500 takes up photography, that's 4,000,000. If each kid spends let's say $100 a year on it, that's $400,000,000 annually. So there's enough in it for companies to stay around and make a profit. We may be left with only a few, But so far, so good. Fortunately, most of the best chemistry and R&D have been done. So we're starting off with excellent film products and cameras (if old and slightly worn).

[Tin Can]

I have posted about the complete obsolesce of any camera, image system before

If and that is a bigger IF now, we will have bionic soldiers shortly

As they will get the first iterations

Body Internal 'Hard Drive'

Brain and vision combined imaging

Elon is close on that

Prints as REAL Art will survive

but they burn as fast as books

451

[BrianShaw]

silver nitrate and kosher salt will always be around. it's really not that hard to make one's own photo emulsion, whenever I do it it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.
YMMV of course. So if the revolution isn't televised, I can put myself in the driver seat and it will be live.

Isn't Jello needed too?