more about the future of film?

I am putting a business plan together in that we will have a "pub" style hangout in the very international and artistically driven town of Aspen, where I live. In short order, you could sign up for a workshop, come back and develop and print your work. Or, you could be in town for a week of skiing, come in and rent a Hasselblad, Nikon, etc and then use our lab to develop and print your own film.

You could also get a latte and flop into one of the comfy couches or bean bag chairs and peruse a coffee table book, current issue of PDN, look at the current show on the walls, etc.

But either way, I aim to bring back real photography to a town in which the people who come to visit are stunned to find out that not even Anderson Ranch Arts center offers real film and darkroom workshops.

I think this could work and it is exactly the kind of thing that needs to happen to keep people interested in using film...

Helinophoto said:

I think that the photographic community needs to promote film more in the younger segments.

I know a lot of young and up and coming photographers that are fascinated with the subject, but knowledge and teaching is scarce (except from when you are on the Internet).
The only thing that can keep things going, is that it exist a marked for the companies supplying film and analogue material, thus, stuff like lomography can only benefit the situation.

I am pretty sure that if you'd shown a 18 year old the process on _how_ to make a photo, from pressing the shutter at a location, to a finished print (from a scan or a wet-print), that person would be fascinated and interested to learn more and shoot analogue himself/herself.

The problem is, perhaps, that there are very few younger people being thought this these days, so the knowledge and the marked keeps getting smaller.

Maybe have a mantra "teach one youngster per year on how to shoot, develop and print using film" would be an idea?

Click to expand...

Helinophoto said:

I think that the photographic community needs to promote film more in the younger segments.

I know a lot of young and up and coming photographers that are fascinated with the subject, but knowledge and teaching is scarce (except from when you are on the Internet).
The only thing that can keep things going, is that it exist a marked for the companies supplying film and analogue material, thus, stuff like lomography can only benefit the situation.

I am pretty sure that if you'd shown a 18 year old the process on _how_ to make a photo, from pressing the shutter at a location, to a finished print (from a scan or a wet-print), that person would be fascinated and interested to learn more and shoot analogue himself/herself.

The problem is, perhaps, that there are very few younger people being thought this these days, so the knowledge and the marked keeps getting smaller.

Maybe have a mantra "teach one youngster per year on how to shoot, develop and print using film" would be an idea?

Click to expand...

I agree with you Helinophoto. Young people starting to explore the analog world is a key to making film and developing being avilable for "ordinary people" in the future. If there won't be a dramatic change very soon there will not be many commercial processing labs left, for example in Norway. The majority of people using film here now is old people wich don't want or can't learn to use digtal. When they have passed away, the next generation has already learned digital before they got old and will not have any trouble using it. APS is soon dead due to the film is out of production, and the majority of the people using it will not buy a new analog 35mm camera. Then there is even less film left to process for the labs. So soon there won't be enough film circulating among ordinary people to keep more than a few labs in the country busy enough.

People stocking up on old, outdated film and not buying fresh film is also another thing that makes todays manufacturers struggle. For example I bought 150 sheets of Tech Pan now, and I will buy more if I can. Kodak doesn't get a dime from me for that film, other consumers do. Kodak won't even get money from me buying chemistry for the TP, because the Technidol is also out of production. So I use other brands of developer to develop it. But I do buy Tri-X, wich is the only BW film Kodak has left wich I like.

People like us can develop at home, but that's not something the mainstream commmunity will do. The consumer/mainstream market will not save film, it's people like us that have to save film. People dedicated to analog photography. Hopefully there will be enough of those people to keep a few film manufacturers profitable enough to offer us a small range of quaility film.

And of course, people using analog have a "responsibility" to teach and preach about it.
A few days ago I made a little video demonstrating how "easy" it is to develop 4x5 film, and I also blog about my interest in analog photography. Hopefully there will be a person or two more wanting do explore analog than if I didn't write anything about it.

Ilford isn't going anywhere. Their entire market is us no reason for them to pack up and leave. The loss will be the color and slide film, unless Ilford or another niche company picks up the demand.