Category: B&W

It was about a month ago when I last mentioned Film. Well, here I go again!

In this very digital age, where even reasonably priced cameras can make really good photographs, and the all singing,  all dancing mobile phones work wonders, it seems quite strange that a growing interest in film seems to be flourishing.

Well, perhaps it’s not so strange after all.

Despite the fact that developing a roll of film and scanning it to CD will cost you a small fortune, there is still something fascinating, perhaps even wildly romantic, about loading a roll of film into an old camera.  Some say it’s that grainy, uniquely filmy effect that people are searching for.  But let’s be honest, quite pleasing ye olde filme effects can be achieved with ease using camera settings, Gimp and a whole host of other programmes and apps.

I believe it’s that yearning for the antique that seems to be in vogue at the moment. Why light a candle when there are numerous LEDs offering a similar quality of light. Why fiddle around with vinyl records when an MP3 player performs brilliantly. Why go for a spin in a veteran car when a new car with all those lovely features is no doubt far more reliable and economical,  and of course who on earth would want to go on a journey in an old, smelly, oily and grubby steam train when the new trains are quicker and far more comfortable – well, me for one!!

Perhaps I have succumbed to the lure of the antique and perhaps that’s why I plopped a film in my Yashica T5 a while ago,  and enjoyed every minute pointing and shooting with it.  Who really cares why the good old film has once again captured my imagination – but if it has, and your imagination has been captured too – let’s just enjoy it.

Once upon a time there was a photography shop in Zurich that never failed to catch my attention. I used to ride past it on the way to work quite regularly,  and the windows were full of fascinating stuff – enlargers, developing stuff, paper cameras… you name it they would have it. But the shop never actually appeared to be open.

Imagine then my excitement last year when I read that the shop was closing and there was to be a closing down sale “flea market”.  For various reasons I didn’t actually attend, but I did read a couple of interesting articles in the newspaper about the history of the business and decided to capture this historic event on film.

That was almost a year ago. Since then the shop has reopened      http://www.ars-imago.com/    and sells all sorts of film related stuff.  I plan to visit the shop within the next few months or so, but in the meantime I did back their new product…. more about that soon.