Yes the title is kind of joke or somehow cynical declaration… this is not a rumor, but our reality – thanks to many activists, film is not dead and unstoppably growing in popularity. recently i found that a few local (Tel Aviv’s) digital photography stores started selling film. In part of them the prices are inexplicably high, but i do believe that some people just don’t pay attention to these prices.
In the same time, sometimes during conversation about photography with different people – photographers and not a photographers, i still hear this phrase – “really, people still use film?” or “is it possible to buy film these days?” or more actual “why to use film?”. Well, someone also asked me to show with a camera display the results of shooting on film. Ok this is funny, but don’t think about me as a film photography snob – started with digital photography and only after few years of shooting i got the beauty of grainy frames, and still use both formats.
So, what with the last question – “why to use film?”. i don’t want to waste your time with the tiresome philosophy about “zen of film photography” and “motivation to slow down the clicks” – everything in our head and possible to make less clicks also with a digital camera. Or, if to say with the words of Abraham Maslow – “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” and photography “Chauvinism” does not look different from any other kinds of chauvinism.
All the images below were taken with Ricoh GR1s on ilford HP5 film and semi-stand developed in R09 Rodinal. scanned with Epson V500 and corrected in Lightroom.