Hey all, Erik here with a quick guest post about a subject that’s raised a lively debate in our studio. Everyone on our crew has long been shooting with Polaroids, rangefinders, micro 4/3 cameras adapted to accept vintage lenses…even processing digital images to look like they came out of an old dusty camera. Surveying the landscape, it’s clear this tide has been rising for a while now and we’re not the only ones attached to this stuff. So the question I present to you is this:
Why is retro or faux-retro photography so popular these days?
Why, when we have such capable and inexpensive cameras at our disposal, are we reverting to old technology and old aesthetics? Is it pure nostalgia? Is it a palette cleanser from the ease and accuracy of said capable and inexpensive cameras? Is it a passing trend? We have opinions–especially Chase does as you might expect–but we’d like to hear from you.
It may be a trend, but it’s not that a bad photograph with a retro effect on it becomes a good photo.
For me a photo has to tell a story and you can certainly do that in digital, but film can just add that bit of extra touch you need to make the photo perfect.
I actually wrote a whole piece yesterday before I read this post, trying to answer the question is “film photography dead”, a search query that has come up a lot lately in the analytics of my film photography blog.
A blog I named Tales on Film (www.talesonfilm.com) on purpose. As I said before a photo has to tell a story and the technique used is secondary to the result. I would say the goal justifies the means. A good photo tells a story not only of the scene but it also tells us something about the photographer and the choice of film, lens, camera, color/bw is all part of that story.
Not only does film or an app have us make choices, it also will slow us down and have us think about a photo. Even a snapshot becomes something we make and no longer something we take. When photography came around, people believed photos stole your soul. So we as photographers have an obligation to make the best photograph we can, with whatever tools fit the job the best.
I’ve been on this planet longer than most of you have been taking photos and I find this processing fad of hiding poorly executed photos with ‘vintage’ processing to be totally bogus. I’ve got more faded photos in the box than you can imagine. I’d rather scan the neg and re-process it than post that sort of junk.
As far as I’m concerned it’s just a bunch of folks feeding off one another. It does not make it a good composition, it’s just trendy.
Get off the lawn.
First of all it is absolutely a trend, and the Iphone added to that trend. It is the same as HDR photography. It has become a means to make any photograph interesting. However, in my opinion photography is all about looking and seeing, story-telling and finding deeper layers within your photography. If you want to create a WOW factor, you don’t need all of the above, you just point and shoot, add your effect and people love it, however it is still an image with little depth. In my opinion it is an easy way of getting a WOW factor and that’s why people love it. Anyone can make a nice picture…
I can name quite a few photographers who do use it in the right way, but they made a clear choice why a certain technique should be used with a certain project. In their cases it added to what the photographer was / is trying to tell. These are exceptions!
Was speaking to a few friends about this recently as it happens… I raised that it may come down to trust. I.e. do we trust what we are seeing is “real”.
Plenty of media attention has been given to the gross, over-the-top “Photoshopping” of models in fashion layouts, and I think people now look at images differently now. The more polished and clean it looks, the more “obviously photoshopped” it is, the less we trust that’s it’s based in reality. We perhaps then feel less connected with it, even feel a bit negative toward it.
Having something a little more flawed, or even seemingly “ruined”, seems to feel more “real”. It appears it’s been taken by a fellow human, who’s not an “arrogant pro” (which is another point actually), so we connect with it more.
Trust in “reality”, and less negative “obviously a snobby pro” emotional reaction, seems to be driving popularity in stuff like BestCamera/instagram/Hipstamatic. Perhaps too that it fits with fashion trend for more comfortable looking, bohemian, op-shop style clothing.
Interesting thoughts. I think you are on to something.