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.
To some extent “Digital” isn’t really a medium, it just digitizes other mediums–music, typography, drawing, photography, etc, etc. So it really has no other place to go but backwards for inspiration (there are even HDR style paintings from way back). And since digital makes everything both cheaper to make, and cheaper to buy, it’s partly just cannibalistic.
I’m starting to like the retro feel in the photographs, but strongly feel that it’s a fad we’re going through. I see it more and more in wedding photography as well. So I try no to over due the images in post, but rather capture the emotions and events as they unfold, naturally.
Different cameras present different ways of shooting pictures. And besides the final presentation of an image, conceptualizing, framing, and shooting an exposure is half the fun.
If my Nikon D7000 is a modern Ferrari 458 Italia, loaded to the gills with electronics and engineering designed to produce the fastest and most consistent results possible, then my Nikon FE manual focus film camera is a classic MGB roadster with a wheezy engine and old technology but reminds of how things used to be and is extremely fun in its own right. The old and the new do the same thing (drive on the road or take pictures), but at the same time, they don’t.
And you’ll find fans in either camp, or as I’ve discovered, in both camps. Most car enthusiasts look for and cherish driving experiences. Lots of photographers look for and cherish photographing experiences.
I’m on a solo road trip right now and I’ve got a manual focus rangefinder film camera loaded with B/W film, a manual focus SLR film camera loaded with slide film, and my DSLR, and I’m having a blast shooting all three.
I think for me personally it’s diving into something unknown. I was too young to really play around with film slr cameras when they were popular the first time, and my parents never owned a Polaroid camera.
So when I add an effect in instagram or photoshop or whatever, or I pull out my vintage film camera, it’s something new and exciting for me.
I recently got a whole bunch of film developed from rolls I took months ago, and only about 3 frames turned out. Such an eye opener to me to see how many frames I stuffed up because I didn’t have the electronic metering. But damn it was fun flicking through though pictures.
I think I have observed that same thing but shrugged the idea. Reading your post about it, months later, makes me think again. And maybe yes, in some pictures the ‘feel’ of vintage looks great and a touch of such isn’t a bad idea at all!