A great article about a younger generation keeping film processing alive...

[munz6869]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02...Rqk_0NbztD23d03XYcXGSu_kJNlpxlWBt_lec5Qtx7_E0

A distinct bias towards younger people, but hey, we all used to be them...!

Marc!

 

[AgX]

Strange that a broadcasting station is believed to be more knowledgable on this niche topic than all of Apuggers living in this niche...

 

[semi-ambivalent]

Strange that a broadcasting station is believed to be more knowledgable on this niche topic than all of Apuggers living in this niche...

=8^)

 

[AgX]

=8^)

No idea at all what you mean by that.

What I mean to say is that there have been a lot of discussions here at Apug. Some members see an increase, some see a decline. And that includes members who are constantly in contact with young photographers.

All I can say so far is that increases I know of are of very local nature. (Or restricted to Instax.)

I get the impression that some haphazard articles are presented at Apug now and then as proof of own believe/perception/hope.
Maybe in this case though I got the OP wrong.

 

[jim10219]

No idea at all what you mean by that.

What I mean to say is that there have been a lot of discussions here at Apug. Some members see an increase, some see a decline. And that includes members who are constantly in contact with young photographers.

All I can say so far is that increases I know of are of very local nature. (Or restricted to Instax.)

I get the impression that some haphazard articles are presented at Apug now and then as proof of own believe/perception/hope.
Maybe in this case though I got the OP wrong.

It's a little dude with spikey hair, big eyes (maybe glasses), and a pointy nose smiling at you. I wouldn't take offense to it.

I am seeing a lot more young people getting into film. What I'm not seeing is a lot of young people going to the same old shops to buy their film and cameras, or have their film processed. If they go to a local shop, it's usually run by other young people, and has a hip look and theme. They look like coffee shops, book or record stores that sell cameras. They don't look like the old camera stores that display their merchandise and have attentive sales people dressed up in business casual there who follow you around the store who are competing to make their sales quota. They often have chairs, employees dressed in street clothes, and obscure music playing form a prominently displayed turntable. The staff is a lot more casual, and they often don't have but half their merchandise on display. You have to talk to the staff and ask them questions, and they'll dig stuff out of the back that they think you might like. And they'll charge you way too much for it all. They don't usually offer services like camera repair, as light leaks aren't always such a bad thing to them. It's more of a social hangout spot than a traditional business. They're not interested in hanging on to the old ways. Their interested in forging their own paths. This is a generation that grew up with the convenience and precision of digital. What attracts them to film is the slow process and flaws of the medium. They embrace the happy accidents. They're more experience oriented, and less results oriented.

Photrio (Apug) is mainly a bunch of older men. Younger people don't gravitate to forums too often. So what you see on this site isn't very representative of the world at large. And while I'm seeing more and more young people get into film, I don't see them using it as their primary means of photography (smart phones still rule for that), nor do I ever see film returning to it's glory days. If anything, I'd say the increase in popularity with the younger generation is just enough to stabilize the film industry where it's at.

 

[AgX]

As I indicated I referred to Apuggers who look around outside this forum and who do not see such. To the contrary.
I also indicated that there are people like you who do make such experiences.
As both exist, we cannot make a general conclusion.

 

[AgX]

We also should not overlook that the few people who still design and manufacture films are old farts too.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I think it's us old farts that have kept film alive... If we stopped, say good bye to film. But... I am very happy that younger people are getting hooked on it!

 

[ann]

My classes always including young folks. My summer teen age class is always full

 

[DDTJRAC]

Strange that a broadcasting station is believed to be more knowledgable on this niche topic than all of Apuggers living in this niche...

Lots of age discrimination with older photogs. Look at what they promotes on the photo blogs. All young people. Young people...like young people. If you are old, you get snubbed. Maybe famous photogs that are old are OK, but generally speaking old = invisible to young people. And if not invisible, it is a stewing hatred.

You may not know this, but widespread hatred for baby boomers with the millenials, gen Z, iGen.

Here is an example from another forum...


GBC_Dude @GBC_Dude
23 minutes ago
I hope 1 day us millennials will be in charge of everything in America so we can do what Hitler did to the Jews unto you boomers! We need another holocaust! A boomer holocaust!


I could send in tons of hatred posts like this against boomers. But you get the idea.

 

[pentaxuser]

All the strips of film seemed to be C41 colour but OK the only print was B&W. I presume that the graininess of which she spoke was B&W. Graininess seems to be the common theme as the main attraction. Maybe it is. Is this a kind of nostalgia for what they assume to be the old days?

The next time I see a young B&W shooter I'll have to resist saying that my film is so grainy that even when I shoot a modern boxing match it only returns pictures of Robinson v LaMotta

pentaxuser

 

[abruzzi]

Photrio (Apug) is mainly a bunch of older men. Younger people don't gravitate to forums too often. So what you see on this site isn't very representative of the world at large. And while I'm seeing more and more young people get into film, I don't see them using it as their primary means of photography (smart phones still rule for that), nor do I ever see film returning to it's glory days. If anything, I'd say the increase in popularity with the younger generation is just enough to stabilize the film industry where it's at.

This is very true. As a middle age guy (read that as young guy to the older long time film photogs, but horrible ancient to the young'uns) I could still have 40-50 years of shooting film ahead of me. No offense, but old people die off at a much higher rate than young people, and while the now-older photographers were the people who kept the film market from completely collapsing in the aughts and early teens, none of the film or film supplies companies can bank on them long term. So a consistent steady market of young people entering the film world will keep me shooting.

I'm not a big fan of some of the styles you see on younger, hipper photo sites, but that doesn't matter. If it makes the medium interesting to people younger than me, thats a good thing. Kodak, Ilford, Adox, Maco, even Fujifilm probably all agree with me on that.

 

[Rudeofus]

What I mean to say is that there have been a lot of discussions here at Apug. Some members see an increase, some see a decline. And that includes members who are constantly in contact with young photographers.

All I can say so far is that increases I know of are of very local nature. (Or restricted to Instax.)

There may be uncertainty whether film use increases or decreases, but there is certainty that dSLR/MILF use is crashing hard.

The statement in this article

In fact, she was a very late adopter of digital, and it will be a short-lived experiment.
"It doesn't have the same effect and you can take the same photo with an iPhone."

is truly backed up by Canon's prediction, that "the camera market will drop by another 50% by the next two years". There is a good chance, that the alleged "rise in popularity of film" is due to the increase in prevalence of film in the whole field of amateur photography. People suddenly can see the few analog cameras within the now rapidly thinning crowd of digital photographers.

BTW I do not get the obsession of some folks here with millennials and their alleged hate against us older folks. Anyone will find plenty of disgusting material, if one searches for hateful postings about any group imaginable.

Contrary to this, the article specifically states

While film photography was particularly popular among young people, Ms Hopkins hoped hearing that would encourage older people to bring their old cameras out of storage.

 

[awty]

The vast minority of people I see while out and about using film cameras are under 30. There always seem to be very enthusiastic and great to talk to..Not sure why they never seem to want to hang around crusty old people and be preached to about the 20th century, famous dead photographers and brand love.