Preface

Film photography is one of those art forms where an enormous multitude of different opinions, experiences, and beliefs thrive. Particularly in the age of blogs, social networks, and a huge number of online communities on this topic, it’s unavoidable that some of these differing opinions will clash. Finding common ground is not always easy—in the digital world, we are working with discrete numbers and defined states. But in the analog realm, we generally tend to talk about continuous and fluid boundaries between states. This offers an ideal feeding ground for voodoo and self-styled shamans of all colors.

Correspondingly, along with the accurate knowledge and helpful information out there, you will also find a lot of half-knowledge or—even worse—pure nonsense. We have taken great care to avoid all the nonsense here. Our book is completely rooted in the knowledge we’ve gained through our years of experience. We don’t claim to have all the answers to all the questions. But we are always curious to learn more, and we constantly ask “Why?” We give reasons and background knowledge about the topics in this book, and in those areas where this book cannot offer enough room for digging more deeply, we offer sources that can provide more information.

1.3.3Does Film Still Exist?

Let’s answer the big question right away, the one that we as film photographers hear the most: “Is film still around at all?”

The answer is a very loud Yes!

Yes, film is still around

Sure, film has already had its heyday. Its strongest year as a product was around 1996, when big labs processed billions of photos. We will surely never see film reaching such popularity again, but there is a growing number of people who are (re)discovering this traditional medium and appreciate working with it.

News flashes about the decline of Kodak or popular film brands such as Kodachrome going out of production stick in peoples’ memory because the news media makes a big story of it. And you don’t often see film on supermarkets shelves, any more. With a bit of luck, you can still see the occasional own-brand roll of film in a drugstore, near the CD-ROMs and next to a Fuji Superia or a packet of Kodak Gold—sometimes even two different film speeds. Even the odd roll of black-and-white film can occasionally still be found in the wilds of the supermarket. But the boxes for the paper pouches with the developed film have shrunk, and have often been replaced by printing machines with memory card readers. The digital camera has definitely taken over; film has retreated into a smaller niche.

But in that niche, it’s alive and kicking.

The advancement of digital technology has not made life easy for film enthusiasts. But more than just the big names, such as Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford, continue to produce film. Some smaller companies are also still on the market. Even an old traditional film company, the Italian Ferrania, managed to get a revival through a crowdfunding campaign in 2014.

The instant-print market, previously dominated by Polaroid, is also still lively. Fuji continues to offer Instax film; and in 2008, the Impossible Project purchased the defunct Polaroid production site in Holland (Enschede). They have once more been producing film for instant cameras since 2010.

Today, film is mostly traded on the Internet. Various online retailers offer everything you need for ambitious analog photography—from film and photo chemicals to equipment for photo labs and darkrooms.

Many directors still use film for shooting movies. In February 2015, Kodak announced new contracts with some large Hollywood studios, which should ensure the production of material for analog movies for many years.

We shoot both analog and digital these days, and one thing we want to avoid in this book is to split the photography world into these two camps. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, and they are both an integral part of our photographic life. Ultimately, this book is all about photography—regardless of which medium it involves. It’s about the creative process; about creating pictures that the viewer takes another look at instead of just turning the page. The process with which the pictures in this book are created is important to us for many reasons. Mainly, we want to stick up for film photography. In this book, you’ll read about our reasoning, our inspiration, and about the photographic process.

1.4.4Wondering if This Book Is for You?

If you are reading this text, you are expressing an interest in exploring film photography with the intent to learn more. That’s wonderful. We wrote it for anyone who is curious about using film as a medium, and looking for an alternative—perhaps new—approach to their photography.

What draws us to film photography is the joy we get through experiencing a process that has given us a deep and lasting understanding of photography. Dealing with the topic in an intensive and, above all, playful way has changed how we look at the medium in general, and also how we look at subjects. We have learned to welcome the accidental and to learn from mistakes. Not everything we tried worked out in the end. Not everything that worked out was pretty. But we found beauty in places where we had never imagined it could be.

We cannot give you a recipe for great ideas and creativity, but we would like to provide fresh impetus to help you try something different with your photography, and to expand your toolbox with new opportunities. If you enjoy doing things yourself and being a hands-on learner; and if you like experimenting and losing yourself in the step-by-step exploration of a process—this book is for you. Please do use the suggestions in this book as a starting point for your own experiments. Pick out the ones you like, change things, dismiss others. And if you like, share your results at www.thefilmphotographyhandbook.com. We look forward to it!

1.5.5. . . Or Maybe It’s Not for You?

With this book, we invite you to explore the process and spend time testing your new skills. We enjoy playing around and are convinced that it is a good way of developing new ideas.

What we describe on the following pages includes materials and cameras that might be considered faulty, inadequate, obsolete, or not state-of-the-art by today’s standards. We firmly believe that technical precision isn’t everything in terms of creating a good picture. In our eyes, it actually tends to get in the way.

Not everything you try will be a success. Even photos that succeed are not necessarily going to be museum-quality. Our purpose is not to show you the way to make great works of art; primarily, we want to show you how to have fun, and to encourage you to think outside the box. We want you to ask “what if?” If you like the result, that’s enough—whether or not others share your opinion should be just a side issue.

If you are one of those people who wants to get a standardized result as quickly and efficiently as possible, you may not find what you want in this book. If you appreciate maximum precision and absolute reproducibility in photography, you can certainly achieve these results with film photography, but this topic is not a priority in this book. Our main focus is on film photography and the creative possibilities of processing negatives. We will discuss both hybrid processing (digitization) of the pictures, and their digital post-processing.

The main focus of this book is not on traditional darkroom work. That would probably fill more than one separate book.

Thanks

We want to thank Lothar Muth for the Berlin branch of our workshops and plenty of developments and prints; Frauke and Michael for rekindling our analog fire; Annik Traumann for inspiration, good talks, and contacts; Heinz Wille for enthusiasm and pictures; Allan Attridge for invisible cameras and visible chairs; Alexander Waschkau for helping us realize deep insights within ourselves; and @baumbaTz, @Hamateur, and @klein_gedruckt for app tricks from the world of Android. Also, we are grateful to Lady Caraway and Lord Coriander for every hair they did not shed onto our negatives.