If i could not have a darkroom, i would probably just shoot digital
If i could not have a darkroom, i would probably just shoot digitalIf a scanner is the most important thing then this would seem to bode ill for the future of darkroom paper, wouldn't it?
On the IlfordPhoto site yesterday there was info on the Photography Show at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) next month and there seemed to be little there in terms of lectures, stands etc to indicate that those in the "photography business" other than Ilford's presence have yet recognised a revival in analogue matters that is of sufficient import to warrant much attention.
The Imaging Warehouse, formerly called Nova Darkroom, send me a lot of info on their courses but all of it pertains to Permajet and has nothing to do with traditional darkroom stuff
pentaxuser
If i could not have a darkroom, i would probably just shoot digital
Imagine if you lived in a van, but film photography was one of the loves of your life.
Not at all. Scanning has just taken over the role of the contact print or the cheap small prints (that tragically ended up being associated with the end product for most people. IE "development" meant small shitty drugstore/supermarket prints. The negatives was just these weird plastic strips that no one really know what to do with.)If a scanner is the most important thing then this would seem to bode ill for the future of darkroom paper, wouldn't it?
On the IlfordPhoto site yesterday there was info on the Photography Show at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) next month and there seemed to be little there in terms of lectures, stands etc to indicate that those in the "photography business" other than Ilford's presence have yet recognised a revival in analogue matters that is of sufficient import to warrant much attention.
The Imaging Warehouse, formerly called Nova Darkroom, send me a lot of info on their courses but all of it pertains to Permajet and has nothing to do with traditional darkroom stuff
pentaxuser
There are people who do wet plate/tin type out of a van. Of course, if you also had to live in the van, well that might be crowding things.
analog revival is wishful thinking! analog photography is all but dead; just a labor of love these days.
Some may be aware of CameraRescue.org in Finland (of all places). From their home page:
"Our dream is to contribute to the global analog photography community by doing what we do best. In celebration of Finland’s 100th anniversary we united the mechanical camera expertise of our small engineering nation under one common goal – to rescue 100,000 cameras by the end of 2020. For us, rescuing cameras is the act of finding cameras that suffer from neglect or need to be repaired and getting them to the hands of new users.
"The goal that we set years ago was achieved in May 2021. Now the project's focus is moving from quantity to quality and education. We want there to be cameramakers also in 2050 and to make sure that happens, we started a school in 2021."
In the grand scale of things, they're tiny. One can argue the same for number of "views" of film photography videos, and subscribers to such channels on YouTube. However, it's notable that interest has continued in what seem significant numbers; that small, new manufacturers are continuing to succeed in finding markets for everything from view cameras to meters; and that Ilford and other companies have even brought out new films and papers over the period since film allegedly had died c.2013.
More significant, however, is what I would forecast as a cultural shift, judging from a host of factors internationally (for this forum they go a bit far afield). What emerges from certain trends, coheres in general with the thesis of The Revenge of Analogue: Real Things and Why They Matter (Perseus, 2016), which looks not only at film, vinyl, board games, and such, but also at some examples where people are rediscovering non-digital engagement, including with real people.
What I would suggest, is that the longer-term Western (in particular) trend based on the notion of a post-industrial society, upon which, ironically, the Internet/phone/screen/social-media society has rested, is reaching its own inevitable conflict with physical reality, and that in various ways, people are realizing it. That is, while we benefit enormously from all sorts of new technological advances in the digital and related domains, the neglect of the physical basis upon which our lives depend—food doesn't grow on the Internet or in the back room at the market, water doesn’t originate in the faucet—has intersected an increasing tempo of critical failures of various kinds that are causing a growing number of people to re-examine some of the axioms they've taken for granted over recent decades.
In one small way, I believe, this is what underlies (consciously or not) the refrain among new film users and other returning to film from digital: it slows me down; it makes me think about what I am doing; the pictures I make have more meaning for me; the physical process is challenging in a different way; it's not instant, you have to wait to see the images—and I like all that!
Barilla, a pasta manufacturer, had a magazine ad a while back, showing a group of 20s- or 30s-aged people enjoying a pasta dinner together, talking, laughing. The ad copy said something like, "Lasagna without cell phones." I don’t expect film to return to its former popularity, but I do think it has begun already to find its place, alongside other technologies and re-evaluation, among people who are tired of checking their phones every three minutes and preferring enjoying social life without the media, sitting down with a printed book, even some relaxed peace and quiet.
"Is there really a revival of analog photography"
No there is not!
There is no need to revive something that has never perished!
Some may be aware of CameraRescue.org in Finland (of all places). From their home page:
"Our dream is to contribute to the global analog photography community by doing what we do best. In celebration of Finland’s 100th anniversary we united the mechanical camera expertise of our small engineering nation under one common goal – to rescue 100,000 cameras by the end of 2020. For us, rescuing cameras is the act of finding cameras that suffer from neglect or need to be repaired and getting them to the hands of new users.
"The goal that we set years ago was achieved in May 2021. Now the project's focus is moving from quantity to quality and education. We want there to be cameramakers also in 2050 and to make sure that happens, we started a school in 2021."
In the grand scale of things, they're tiny. One can argue the same for number of "views" of film photography videos, and subscribers to such channels on YouTube. However, it's notable that interest has continued in what seem significant numbers; that small, new manufacturers are continuing to succeed in finding markets for everything from view cameras to meters; and that Ilford and other companies have even brought out new films and papers over the period since film allegedly had died c.2013.
More significant, however, is what I would forecast as a cultural shift, judging from a host of factors internationally (for this forum they go a bit far afield). What emerges from certain trends, coheres in general with the thesis of The Revenge of Analogue: Real Things and Why They Matter (Perseus, 2016), which looks not only at film, vinyl, board games, and such, but also at some examples where people are rediscovering non-digital engagement, including with real people.
What I would suggest, is that the longer-term Western (in particular) trend based on the notion of a post-industrial society, upon which, ironically, the Internet/phone/screen/social-media society has rested, is reaching its own inevitable conflict with physical reality, and that in various ways, people are realizing it. That is, while we benefit enormously from all sorts of new technological advances in the digital and related domains, the neglect of the physical basis upon which our lives depend—food doesn't grow on the Internet or in the back room at the market, water doesn’t originate in the faucet—has intersected an increasing tempo of critical failures of various kinds that are causing a growing number of people to re-examine some of the axioms they've taken for granted over recent decades.
In one small way, I believe, this is what underlies (consciously or not) the refrain among new film users and other returning to film from digital: it slows me down; it makes me think about what I am doing; the pictures I make have more meaning for me; the physical process is challenging in a different way; it's not instant, you have to wait to see the images—and I like all that!
Barilla, a pasta manufacturer, had a magazine ad a while back, showing a group of 20s- or 30s-aged people enjoying a pasta dinner together, talking, laughing. The ad copy said something like, "Lasagna without cell phones." I don’t expect film to return to its former popularity, but I do think it has begun already to find its place, alongside other technologies and re-evaluation, among people who are tired of checking their phones every three minutes and preferring enjoying social life without the media, sitting down with a printed book, even some relaxed peace and quiet.
What a delightfully articulate response. Thank you.
If Kodak starts making b&w photo paper. I'll start to believe there's a real film revival.
Whay not using their film coater to make paper as others do? That being said I like your ideaNaaah, if they jump start PROCESSING. When they dismantled the photo finishing arm of their operation it was the end. They are unable to produce small quantities like Ilford. From what I remember reading from tours Eager Appuggers attended, and threads that Simon Galley responded to, Ilford has 1 coating machine so things are a bit more manageable. That is, unless EK wants to make a massive run and sell expired fogged paper to paper negative shooters..... or just coat double weight AZO / Gaslight / Silver Chloride paper that will have a 100 year shelf life. Its almost 1902 might as well make what people shot in 1902 .. at the same scale.
They are unable to produce small quantities like Ilford.
Whay not using their film coater to make paper as others do? That being said I like your idea
And they really aren't working with paper any more.
So long as Kodak won't make paper, there is no film photography "revival". Kodak will never make paper again.
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