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.
Wow… there are too many opinions to read them all at once…
I believe that it’s finally a matter of fashion and differentiation. Indeed not everyone makes photos for a living but all of us here are connected to photography and the universal language that has it.
However, it’s strage to notice that as a counterpart of the “gearheads” there are also the “vintageheads”, people whose lack of technology in the act of photography seems to have a different value, in the different feel of what it is to hear the old shutter and the winding film of it.
As technology advances, the limitations are merely on the skill of the user rather than the instrument. Vintage gives the real “vintage” look just by being what it is, although i find the vintage term a bit overused, quite trendy and therefore, more likely to disappear soon.
Why do we have to always label everything that we do instead of just doing it?
110* film, not 120.
I like the filmic look because that’s what I grew up using. We used polaroid, disposable 35mm, and 120 exclusively. I didn’t start taking digital photos until we got a webcam when I was about 16. And it wasn’t until more very recently that I got an actual digital camera (aside from camera phone). I don’t know.. film has a certain look to it; Like looking at a memory. Digital has an awesome look and can be easier to use (at times), but not always the look that I want to have in my photography.
Who likes knowing exactly what the final product will be? That’s not fun art! That’s not fun to make, there’s no adventure! And I also have a sense that we’re kind of feeding off of others nostalgia a little bit, this generation that’s driven by technology has such little ‘real’ people inspiration.. makes everything far too… clean.. mechanized even.
Because its different and unique! even my grandma has a digital camera these days, its so much more organic, life like and aesthetically pleasing it gives photography character and adventurous feeling as you arent too sure of the results. Also creatives dont like the mainstream we want DIFERENTIATION! love the last few videos, would have liked ot seen the developed polaroids from the video