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No, Vegans, Film Photography Is Not Vegan Friendly

Chris Gampat
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02/19/2020
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Kono Kolorit 400 Tungsten Film 35mm product photos (3 of 3)ISO 4001-80 sec at f - 4.0

Last Updated on 02/19/2020 by Mark Beckenbach

The stereotype of someone being a vegan and a film/analog photographer is very counterintuitive.

Unfortunately for many analog shooters, there is still a stigma against us who shoot film. Because we like old school things and we like the actual connection with our subject while not worrying about all the digital things, we are often also associated with vegans. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe they just think it’s part of the culture. But the truth is film photography isn’t vegan-friendly. In fact, it’s pretty far from it.

Negative Film

Most photographers who get into film will most likely reach for a negative film emulsion. By far, it’s the most common type of film that we can drop off and have developed for us. In addition to that, iconic looks from Portra, Ektar and PRO400H continue to captivate photographers to the point where presets are created so that digital shooters can act like they’re film shooters. But in truth, they’re pretenders. Real negative film contains gelatin which is made using animal parts. This isn’t a recent development (no pun intended) either. It has pretty much always been the case.

Slide Film

Slide film is pretty much the same as negative film. That means that PROVIA and VELVIA will be in the same boat. Sorry folks!

“While Ilford chemicals don’t contain animal products, their film and paper products do. These come in the form of gelatin, which is part of the light-sensitive emulsion layer coated over the transparent plastic film base. However, Ilford also mentions that the gelatin they use is a by-product of the farming industry, so no extra animals were harmed to make these products. We can say it’s the same for other brands, but at least we know for sure that animals aren’t being harmed for the sole purpose of making gelatin for photographic products.”

Instant Film

Instant film is where things start to get a big trickier. Some film emulsions like Polaroid Originals and the remnants that the Impossible Project had contained actual negatives in them. Said negatives had gelatin. But newer things like Instax, while they’re still an actual piece of film with a negative, also aren’t vegan-friendly. Why? Gelatin!

The Blasphemous Sadness That Is zINK

Now, zINK is where things get interesting. They are pieces of paper with the ink pretty much already in it. But those are just pieces of paper that sometimes can be printed to look like instant film and most of the time they don’t. I hate the quality of zINK personally; I’m not sure why Canon chose to use it in some of their own cameras when they have some of the best printing paper on the market. Alas, zINK is vegan friendly, but it isn’t at all film.

analog film photography gelatin instant film negative film Photography slide film vegan zInk
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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