Film Photography’s “Mini-Renaissance”
In a highly digitized world where our memories are often commodities on social media platforms, many Gen Z teenagers and millennials are traveling back in time to connect with the past and create a tangible way to reminisce: film photography.
Johnson Camera, a local photography shop in Dewitt, opened in the late 1950s and has been passed down through the Johnson family for generations. Lydia Johnson, the store’s current owner and an experienced photographer, has paid close attention to the resurgence of film photography over the past few years.
According to Johnson, “I have watched the whole evolution of you know, in my lifetime, of film shift to digital and now film being sort of the norm and having a mini-renaissance of film.”
The multi-generational aspect of film photography is not just unique to Johnson. Lillie Tritt, an 18-year-old photographer and student explained that her 35 millimeter, or film camera, is one of her most precious commodities because it was passed down to her from her grandfather.
“I have two 35 millimeters that were both hand-me-downs from older family members, which kind of, I guess does go to show that it’s resurging from an older time,” Tritt said. “So, my grandfather was really into photography. So, he gave me some of his old film that he had never processed, and I went and processed it in the darkroom and got it for him, and on that camera, it was literally pictures of my mom when she was, like in her 30s.”
Similarly to Tritt, Andrea Hakim’s first film camera was also a hand-me-down from her grandfather. Coming from a family of photographers, Hakim said there were several 35 mm cameras around the house, and one day, she picked one up and decided to learn how to use it.
Since she first learned, Hakim has started to experiment with the film that she produces in physical and digital aspects. Hakim started to paint over her printed film, creating a more unique look to her photographs. Additionally, Hakim expanded her photography to social media by creating a “film account” on Instagram.
According to Hakim, she created the account with her friend before she left for college as a way to keep up with each other and to “post [their] separate adventures.”
Hakim is not the first to create this kind of account on social media. Even social media influencers have created separate photography accounts on Instagram as a way to document the photos they’ve taken through film or disposable cameras. David Dobrik, a YouTube influencer, curates his own account, @davidsdisposable, which has over 3.1 million followers. The account's success even inspired Dobrik to create a “David’s Disposable” camera app, which aims to recreate the look of disposable camera photos.
Maggie Creasman, a 20-year-old student at Florida State University, also has her own disposable camera Instagram which she describes in the account’s bio as her “manifesto of random things I adore.”
Creasman started the account in order to have a place to put all of the photos she has taken over the years. According to Creasman, the disposable camera pictures have always come out “a cool type of way” that cannot be recreated through an app.
Because of this enthusiasm for disposable cameras, Creasman states that she probably purchases about 10-12 cameras per year.
“I’m looking at my dresser right now and I have five that I have to get developed,” Creasman admits.
Johnson states that this fascination with disposable cameras is not rare and that Johnson Camera develops about 80-100 rolls of film from disposable cameras every month.
Johnson credits this revitalized interest in film photography to people’s desire to combat our digitized world that requires people to constantly stare at their screens.
“Some people use film because we are living in an era when our identities have become sort of a commodity. And privacy is certainly, you know, on people’s minds as we, you know, engage in social media, and are always on our phones and in front of our computers,” Johnson explains. “Many of our customers have returned to film as sort of an alternative to using devices such as a phone or the internet.”
Tritt shares a similar viewpoint and described that the tangible aspect of film makes it seem valuable, which cannot be replicated through social media.
“When you take a picture of something digitally and you just, like put it on Instagram and stuff, it’s not like a physical item,” Tritt said. “But when you produce film and you make it into a physical print, it actually makes it a precious thing.”