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The Photography World Is Experiencing a Beautiful Film Renaissance

Chris Gampat
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04/05/2022
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Ilford FP4 125 35mm review scans (5 of 23)ISO 1001-15 sec at f - 2.8

The photography world is currently experiencing what I think is a peak film renaissance. This year, we’ve had a bunch of new films announced. But more than that, film has made its way back into major marketing initiatives. Companies are hiring photographers to shoot film for certain things. And today, film and digital photography can truly coexist.

Let’s give a short rundown of folks who are shooting film professionally or creating incredible work that we’ve profiled in the past two years:

These are probably some of the folks that should eventually be taught in textbooks for their authenticity. These folks aren’t shooting film because it’s a meme or a trend; they’re doing it because it offers them something totally different. They’re not slapping filters on digital photos; they’re putting actual good work forward instead of feeding algorithms. This is a part of what we’ve lost in photography that hopefully the film renaissance can teach us again.

But let’s not only talk about the photographers. There are brands that are trying to put this forward in sustainable and attainable ways. There’s Kodak, Fujifilm, Lomography, CineStill, Ilford, KONO, and others. There are tons of plain, vanilla film looks on the market. But then there are also lots of those plain films that are given a bit of extra flavor. The Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative is pre-exposing some of their film for sale. So too are the folks at Kono. And there are tons of others. 

Arguably speaking, there are more film companies than there are digital camera companies. 

So what’s the point of this post? For years, we’ve featured tons of film photographers. It’s time to give film another shot. You don’t need to develop it yourself. You can help out a lab that specializes in doing just that. For anyone new to photography, film makes you a better photographer by forcing you to work in a different way. For anyone who’s shot film and gave up to go to digital, reconsider the importance of patience and what this film renaissance can teach. 

More importantly, don’t just shoot one roll of film. Shoot a bunch of them and get them scanned. Is it expensive? Yes, but so is a brand new lens. A brand new lens will last you a while and stick only with one camera mount. But the treasure of information you learn from photographing with film will stick with you forever. And there is no warranty on that because it’s an investment back in yourself. You’ll take it with you no matter which camera system you go to.

Now, here’s the bigger realization: you don’t have to be a film or digital photographer. You can do both in the film renaissance. In fact, a lot of these photographers shoot both film and digital. One medium can truly be better for one type of work while the other does a better job at something else. If you don’t understand why, give it a shot and see why so many photographers are going back to shooting film. Even folks who primarily use their phone are using film cameras to shoot in a completely different way.

Why don’t you?

digital film film photography Film Renaissance Photography
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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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