This Cyborg Chooses Analog

    

This is an image I took on a medium format camera on Portra 160.

    In 1816 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented a heliograph. This was the first camera. The camera is a cultural artifact that has evolved with us over the last 210 years. The humble camera comes in all shapes and sizes and utilizes different formats. In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s the digital camera really broke onto the scene and in time became more affordable. However, this cyborg behind the keyboard has never been the biggest fan of digital cameras. I mean, I have one as a part of my phone and yes, I also have a mirrorless Canon, but film is my muse. 

I first picked up a film camera when I was four years old. I shot a whole roll on my dad’s Pentax K1000 while he and my mom were still asleep one morning. Not too many years down the road my parents gave me an Olympus point and shoot camera for christmas. I was always taking photos with it. My true love for film came in high school when I took a black and white film photography class. We had a dark room in my high school. It was the 2001/2002 school year. I fell in love with film all over again because this time I learned how to control the Pentax K1000.

Sadly, dear reader, I lost touch with my beloved Pentax. And by “my” I mean my dad’s because he hasn’t technically given it to me, but it traveled with me from Utah to Florida and from Florida to Texas. When I exhumed her from a box in the closet, I immediately took her to a camera store to get fixed. She worked again, but the light meter will never come back to life. This is fine because I just need to take more time when I set up a shot so I can meter for the light.

I know, I can hear you now. “But how is this a cultural artifact?” Well, my reader, the film camera never went away. Even after digital replaced my muse for a time, there were still film enthusiasts. Analog was just biding her time. Now, film is well and truly back on the scene. Not only are there new film companies out there producing a product, but there are camera companies making NEW film cameras. Pentax is back with a point and shoot, half frame camera. Half frame means you make twice as many photos as the roll is listed to take. This makes film, which is going up in price due to analog’s return, more affordable in the sense that you can take 72 photos with a roll of film instead of just 36. 

Yes, there will always be naysayers touting that mirrorless and digital are the way to go because you can take as many photos as you damn well please. But analog and film will always be my go-to for my photography because film photos, to me, are more thought out and feel more intentional purely because you don’t want to waste a shot. When I take/make photos on film, I separate from my cyborgness. I drop away from the hustle and bustle that technology has bred within us, and I live in the moment. It is just me, my camera, a roll of film, and a beautiful day.