As retro and vintage aesthetics continue to gain popularity, Fashion Editor Alice Keegan comments on the resurgence of film and digital cameras, unravelling the nostalgic motivations behind the trend.
In a time where we all carry a camera in our pockets, taking photos and videos has never been easier. Despite this, in a twist even the most astute marketing experts didn’t see coming, digital and film cameras have made a momentous comeback, with film cameras, particularly, receiving an unprecedented revival. We see this everywhere; the novelty of having one instantly elevates your social status at any gathering, and anyone lucky enough to possess one knows the stress of receiving texts from everyone you were out with the night before looking for the pictures snapped.
Film photography has been around since the early twentieth century. Digital cameras were to follow, with their advent occurring at the turn of the twenty-first century and reaching its apex soon after. However, a new age of technology and later social media invited and incited a desire for efficiency and a decline for the good-old camera. Once considered obsolete, a relic of the past, we are now witnessing a physical photography Renaissance.
In this current era, modern phones are so technologically advanced that iPhone cameras are even being used to shoot films. However, among Gen Z, their heads have been turned by more retro pieces of equipment. On Instagram, searching for the hashtag “digital camera” will bring you to 634,000 different posts. Meanwhile, “film camera” is accompanied by a massive 13.8 million posts created by bona fide professionals and budding amateurs. Apps such as DISPO and HUJI have tapped into this obsession, giving your photos a hazy vintage feel despite being taken on Apple’s most recent release.
Major brands like Burberry have shot campaigns using film, while directors including Quentin Tarantino have always remained loyal to it. Heritage photography brands, including Canon, Kodak, and FujiFilm, have reported year-on-year sales increases, with some even re-releasing old favourites such as Leica and Pentax. Vibrant film communities have been growing both on social media and in vintage stores - not just in major cities, but even in my hometown of Tullamore there have been pop-ups and markets dedicated to vintage film and digital cameras. This analog resurgence appears to be reaching fever pitch, but as more and more reject the clean, modern and easily edited Instagram-worthy style of photo, we wonder what awakened this shift in mindsets.
Is it simply nostalgia? Over the last number of years there has been an intensified interest in all things vintage, particularly among millennials and Gen Z. Record shops have year on year reported increases in the sale of vinyls, while second-hand and thrifted clothing items have never been more sought after. An interest in ‘old school’ popular culture has also been reported, and is evidenced by the massive Disney Plus produced documentary about The Beatles, Get Back, released in 2021, and countless musical biopics released recently, namely A Complete Unknown, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Elvis.
It has been widely acknowledged that there is a unique charm to rummaging through yard sales and flea markets, or listening to the crackle of the needle as it hits the record. Is this same desire for the organic and candid being translated to photography? Are we attracted to the rawness of the ritual that accompanies film photography in particular - the process of loading the film, manually adjusting the focus, listening to the camera’s shutter click, and the thrilling anticipation of not knowing what the final result will be until it's fully developed.
This phenomenon may be a desire for the hard work, the strenuous graft that often accompanies physical photography, be it digital or film.
This may also all be in the process of rejecting instant gratification, and as cliché as it sounds, living more in the moment. Though sometimes they’re a bit too pixelated, faded or blurry (or have the dreaded thumb covering half the picture), there is a charm and equally important sense of satisfaction that comes with looking at these photos later. Rather than taking multiple pictures and proceeding to pick them apart, filter them and crop them in whatever way is perceived as necessary, with digital cameras and old-style film, we are forced to appreciate what the photo represents. Perhaps this is just the start of the wheels beginning to turn as more and more people reject instantaneous, artificial technologies.
Where today you can ask ChatGPT to write your essay on Northern Ireland politics, or solve statistics equations in seconds, is this momentum a return to fundamental artistry? This phenomenon may be a desire for the hard work, the strenuous graft that often accompanies physical photography, be it digital or film. A time capsule of authenticity, while truthfully, they are bulkier, tricky to use and often time-consuming. There is a prowess required to operate film cameras professionally (or at least semi-professionally), and while digital cameras are slightly more accessible, the photos they produce are often imperfect and unpolished. But these aren’t bad things. Rather, this is a refreshing shift and enables users in embracing retro aesthetics to also be more present, more focused and more creative.
What may have started out as a nostalgic yearning for the past, today there are hobbyists who indulge in photography recreationally, or champions of the craft who are determined to propel and prolong this phenomenon, and with various brands re-releasing old favourites, it is likely that this will last for another while. Maybe in the future we’ll take things a step further - as more people expand their burgeoning interests in the world of photography, they might even be led to dark rooms where photos are developed manually, and more broadly, this might be an enduring act of defiance against AI and instant automation. Maybe this isn’t just a passing craze but a new beginning for the art of photography and art in general.