Why is film photography popular?
Some say it’s the colors. Some say it’s the grain. But there’s actually something far more profound happening on both a scientific and philosophical level that digital photography is incapable of, and most people aren’t even aware of.
There is a singular reason as to why film photos have made a comeback, and it’s probably not what you think.
I first started shooting film when I was only 11 years old. But when we entered the digital age, for a while my film cameras turned into nothing more than cool old relics to sit on a shelf. It wasn’t until the last couple of years of pivoting in my photography career that I decided to go back to my first love of film, and now I shoot it more than I do digital!
Recently I was visiting Albuquerque, NM and I stopped by a camera shop to pick up some film for a roadtrip I was about to embark on. I wound up in a beautiful and philosophical conversation that I will never forget. The man who owns the shop has been shooting film for over 50 years, and we had been talking about various types of film before we got on the topic of digital cameras vs. film cameras. He said something that stopped me in my tracks:
“A digital camera can only create what it thinks is there, not what actually is. With film, there’s chemistry and an experience that happens between the subject, the photographer, the light, and the film itself. What you’re looking at through the viewfinder becomes a real moment in time that has been frozen forever.”
So here’s why people like film photographs…
Unlike digital cameras, film doesn’t recreate a scene, it records it. When light hits the surface of film, it reacts with silver crystals, leaving behind a physical imprint. The light that touched someone’s face, or the mountainside at sunset, is the same light that changed the chemistry of the film. It’s literal. It’s tangible. It’s unrepeatable.
Digital cameras are brilliant in their own way, but they work very differently. They measure light in pixels, then use math and software to recreate the image. That information is reconstructing what it thinks it saw. It’s a replica, not an actual moment.
Both digital and film have their benefits and uses, but with film, you’re not just getting an image. You’re looking at a real life moment that actually happened, etched by light onto a piece of celluloid.
Humans are made for connection and to experience emotions and moments of their lives. Film is the only medium that can do that in an honest, raw and authentic way, and people are attracted to that.
As AI has become more of a thing, I’ve seen a lot of photographers worry and complain about AI. And somewhat for good reason! But the funny thing is that the way a digital camera is a computer with certain coding, that then registers the information it’s fed, and then creates the image… that isn’t all that different than how AI works!
So if you’ve been wondering why the world has made its way back to film and is obsessed with it - this is why. Film has the ability to capture something real, and in a period of time where it’s become more and more difficult to understand what is fake and what isn’t, film is a return to authenticity and truth.
