If you’re one of the newer breed of photographers who started out in digital and only afterward picked up analog film photography, then you’re also probably a photographer that has never had an image of theirs printed. The reason: what would you do with it? Would you put it on a wall? Would you keep it in a drawer? Unfortunately for many people, they typically just end up throwing them out. However I’m most certain this is because of one specific issue: they haven’t printed the right photo.
The first time you see your work printed, you’re often pretty excited. But when you print an image you’re already super excited about, that excitement doubles and triples depending on how large the print is made. If you scan it and then print it: cool. But if you develop an analog film photo and then print it in the darkroom: even better! Those mediums were designed to originally work best with one another in the same way that displays are designed to get the most of your digital photos due to the way pixels work.
Printing photos should be done in the same way you share images on Social Media or to your online portfolio. Obviously, you’re not going to upload every single image from that wedding you shot. You’re going to cull through and deliver a select number to your clients. At the same time, you’re going to maybe print only the best as those are the only images your client would want.
So too then should you only be printing “your best photos” for a real life portfolio–not a digital one. It seems cheaper to just do it all digitally but printing an image and bringing it to life so to speak has a special Je Ne Sais Quois to it that makes it feel more authentic. Combine this with good lighting and a large size and you’re getting something that gets people as excited about your photos as you are about them. Perhaps they’ll be even more excited about them.
Don’t misconstrue my words please; I’m not completely saying you should ditch digital photography. That would be stupid in many ways. But I’m saying we should embrace analog photography to its fullest in the same way that we’ve embraced digital photography to its fullest. In the same way that we can be captivated by a good photo slideshow when visiting Time Magazine’s website, we can and should get the same experience from picking up Fader magazine.
There’s a famous saying that a photograph isn’t fully done until it’s printed. In some ways I agree with that. But in other ways, I think that’s when its life really begins: for a while it sat being created, conceived, and it developed into a real photo. Whether there are sliders and pixels or fixer and Rodinal, a photo isn’t truly birthed into the world until it’s printed or ready in some way or another for showtime to the rest of the world.
If you started with film, went to digital, and don’t want to go back: then fine! But the resurgence of analog photography should be a resurgence for all of its processes–not just the experience of shooting film.