My Struggle with Analogue Photography

This is really characteristic of this era. We often talk about it at home with the teenagers when they start complaining again.
Everything has become too easy.
Song? Click, and you listen to it
Movie? Click and you watch it.
Need new trousers? Click, and the next day it gets delivered (and with free returns, otherwise we get angry).
And so it is with photography too. We are so used to taking millions of photos, and having them immediately, that going back is difficult. And where you first had to do many things yourself in terms of post-processing, AI is increasingly taking over, so even more convenience comes into play there.

I photographed analogue for years myself, so I still have some peace in photography. (sometimes I put a memory card in the reader, and notice that I took photos weeks ago which I had briefly forgotten.)
And at the moment I am not doing anything with analogue photography. But as soon as the teenagers have left home, I will have another room where I can do it, and I am really looking forward to that. Go into the darkroom, time for yourself. Experiment. Edit 3 photos in a day and done.

Michiel, you should go to that American photographer in Nijmegen where he lives sometime. An interview was also done with him at Photofacts Academy a few years ago. He mainly works analogue. He also has a little shop where he sells all kinds of material for the analogue photographer.

I’m already so old that I shot analog for more than half of my photographic life. As a young man in my twenties, photographing local sports at the weekend, then quickly into the darkroom and handing in the prints to the editorial office on Sunday evening, all to earn back the cost of purchasing my expensive Nikon F3. That darkroom had nothing magical about it for me even then, I considered it a necessary evil. Something that, incidentally, hasn’t changed: even now, after a day of photography, I dread the time I have to spend in Lightroom.

After the introduction of digital, I continued shooting film alongside it for a while. Mainly because I couldn’t reproduce the look of my favorite analog camera, the Holga, digitally. But eventually I could no longer justify the rising costs to myself.

I understand that young people who grew up with digital find it fun to experiment with film. It also helps to brush up on certain techniques. But for me, it’s a closed chapter. Been there, done that.

For “slow photography” I still occasionally get an outdated digital camera out of a drawer. Slow AF and the time it takes to save a raw file also slow things down considerably.

I'm afraid I was never really a fan of darkroom work (I did do it, though) and therefore usually shot slide film. At the beginning of the century I gradually exchanged that for digital, first with a simple digital compact camera alongside an analogue SLR and then with a digital SLR. I don't really suffer from nostalgic feelings, but I notice that I often still approach digital photography thoughtfully, just like analogue photography in the past. The analogue cameras are nicely displayed in a glass cabinet.

I still think my Canon A1 and Zenza Bronica S2A are fantastic. I've always been a fan of slide film (Kodak Ektachrome). If they're available at all, they've actually become unaffordable. I'd love to develop and print in an environmentally friendly way, but I don't have the time. My FujiFilm XT-3 is my digital camera. But then I use that too little to achieve satisfying results with it. So I understand your struggles.... very well...

Around objects of some age there is always a strong breeding ground for nostalgia. This is also how the “magic” of traditional photography grows, which I think is a better term because when there were only photographic films we did not speak of Analogue photography. But of photography. We can speak of then now. As is known, a technical (R)evolution has taken place in between. Fortunately, in
Museums and magazines it is mentioned when it concerns an “analogue” process and result otherwise you would immediately think that it was made digitally. Does the much sought-after magic come through in the shot image ? Will be difficult. The magic will m be in the experience of making it. The sound, the material, the mechanics, the handwritten recipe the smell. ….There is nothing wrong with that and it is also nice to do but that is a special department within contemporary photography. The museum departmant I would say.

Dear reader,
what an exposition on analogue photography. I started more or less at the age of 8 in the b/w darkroom with my father and an uncle to ‘contact’ and develop b/w negatives myself. ‘K am still charmed by b/w photos. By now I have built up quite a nostalgic collection myself of, among other things, my own Nikon 35mm, Hasselblad(6x6), Fujifilm(6x8) up to Linhof and Cambo(4x5/5x7inch) cameras. Each and every one gems of fine-technical optical equipment. Quite different from that characterless and ‘idiotic’ digital equipment. My current popular digital camera is a Fuji XP-Pro2 with mainly a number of prime lenses. Nice and compact and lightweight, and moreover also up to date, mirrorless!

I really switched to digital after I found that many of my slides taken during a beautiful trip in 2004 no longer had the quality I was used to. The colors were no longer as vibrant and sometimes there was a color cast. The story at the time was that there were serious cutbacks in silver and that this was the cause of the decline.

Recognizable. But now consciously try to go out without a digital camera every now and then... do have some fomo then... but that way I finally do shoot some rolls.

I also started out in the darkroom, with a Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL and later with a Canon A1 and AE1. The Mamiya was destroyed during the riots in Paris in 1968, where as a young inexperienced kid I thought I could take some nice photos; but I had already learned a few lessons: a double-exposed roll and therefore also an unexposed roll. For my graduation - research into the experience of city centres - I printed thousands of photos, and spent hours inhaling the fumes in the darkrooms. I also tried a colour darkroom, but that was mainly frustration. For me, that is a closed chapter, with some nostalgia, but it was also rather polluting with all the chemicals. I consider the biggest advantage of digital to be that you immediately see what the result is. I have a shoot with models in a castle coming up, and I can't do that again. Then I am very happy with digital. My frustration lies more with selfies: I find a portrait with a smartphone a travesty - I am still used to doing portraits with 85-130 mm lenses-, but yes, it can be taken along immediately and many models consider that immediate result more important than quality... But if anyone still wants a developing tank, a changing box, etc., I would be happy to give them away...

Photography has been my hobby for almost 50 years. Always limited by a small budget but I was actively engaged. In the analogue era I had 2 bodies, a Ricoh KR10 and a Ricoh KR5. Along with some prime lenses from Tokina. I mainly did model photography. One camera with slide film and the other with a black-and-white film from Ilford. I didn't have my own darkroom.
Around the mid-90s to 2004 the hobby came to a standstill. In 2004 I switched to digital with a cheap compact camera. That gave little satisfaction and I soon bought a Canon Eos 400D. I photographed a lot with it and also became proficient in using Photoshop and I still use it.
Via the Canon Eos 600D, 70D and 80D I am now working with the Canon Eos R7.
I think digital photography is a blessing. Apart from the purchase of the equipment, it has become a lot cheaper. A darkroom is no longer needed. You can now easily post-process the photos yourself on the computer. This has made it accessible to more people to work with it themselves and post-process a photo to their own taste.
I do see one major disadvantage, though. For my feeling the development of Ai in photography is going too far.
One thing I notice, by the way: Almost all of my favourite photographers are analogue photographers??