Young Generation Getting Interested in Film Photography

I'm 21, I can't get enough of film. I think the holgas are good for the younger generations though, they spark interest. hopefully they make the jump to real cameras afterwards.
 
coelacanth said:
I do think it's great that younger generation is getting into film (I think I'm still in the "younger" group). Probably 90% of them will end up buying overpriced "toy" cameras at Urban Outfitters and forget about it after 3 rolls of cross processing, but maybe a few of them actually find film photography to be their life-long hobby or profession as an artist. It's great that the new "new movement" is lowering the bar to get started.
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+1

We all made choices and behaved in ways that pissed our peers off when we were young IMO ... and we resented being judged for our decisions because we knew deep down that we would ultimately grow up to be the boring farts whose task it was to judge the next generation!

😀
 
I own and operate a private vocational photography school. We have always had, and as long as I am on this side of the grass, always will have a darkroom and continue to teach analogue photography along side digital. Over the years we have noticed that among all our students (they range in age from teens to 70's) it is the under 30 crowd that is most interested in analogue stuff.

However within that crowd there are some that want nothing to do with film and analogue photography and others that want nothing to do with digi. Some do and like both, but most usually have a strong opinion one way or another. I should also mention that those opinions usually change over time. I've seen students who were committed to hating the darkroom and film do a 180 after they saw the (red) light and vice versa.

In any case, our mission at the school is to encourage them to keep their young and still open minds open or, if they've been prematurely shut, to help pry them open with good old fashioned dark (and light) room immersion.
 
I'm a "kid," and film makes up about 80 or 90% of my images now. I shoot 4x5 (though I prefer 6x7 for most stuff) and make color C-prints in the darkroom. I don't do it because it's trendy...🙄
 
the holga is today's brownie; the p&s digitals and phone cams are today's polaroids.
of all my friends through grade school and high school, i do not know of anyone who fell in love with film, except for my brother who only recently started to learn with a camera and lens i gave him. his lumix digital got him looking for something analogue.
i think we should be glad that thousands of young people are at least interested in something - analogue photo - that is NOT instant gratification entitlement ...
 
paulfish4570 said:
the holga is today's brownie; the p&s digitals and phone cams are today's polaroids.
of all my friends through grade school and high school, i do not know of anyone who fell in love with film, except for my brother who only recently started to learn with a camera and lens i gave him. his lumix digital got him looking for something analogue.
i think we should be glad that thousands of young people are at least interested in something - analogue photo - that is NOT instant gratification entitlement ...
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Well said.
 
I am 22 and have been shooting film for a good long while now. I have eschewed the "toy" cameras though in favor of more robust, albeit less hipster film cameras; a Nikon F2S, my first camera; Leica M3, my second; and a Canon EOS-3, my third. A Mamiya 7II is lurking somewhere in the future as well. My grandfather was an optical physicist, so lenses and photography- he only shot film- have always fascinated me. Don't get me wrong, digital is great, but for me shooting film provides a more unique sense of occasion. Also, until recently, film bodies were much cheaper.
 
TXForester said:
I have no idea what that means. Is it like this guy who suffered from extensive acceleration?

troutcane
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It means do to fast information and everyone being an artist these days, that there are fewer ideas left.

My point being that every young person trying to come up with ideas is going to just think of 100,000 ideas first that someone else has done to death. It is pretty hard to make a body of work that is avant-garde.

Art has almost always been about exhausting itself. It just happens faster as more powerful tools like information, air tools, etc, are available.
 
Wow... there's so much cynicism in this thread. Me, I'm just glad that there's more new film photographers (whatever their motives), so that there's more of a market for film, so that it will remain easy to obtain.
 
What next..

What next..

My 18 year old daughter has "borrowed" my Pentax K1000 and helps herself to rolls of film from the fridge on a regular basis. She has a Nikon D90 but enjoys shooting film.

My Yashica Mat 124 seems to live in her room now too.. the Leica will be next.. I can feel it my bones..
 
I'm with n5jrn. I don't get the animosity towards young photographers male female or whatever. I don't know that I've ever seen someone 'posing' with a camera to be a 'hipster'. How is the distinction made between poseur and not? Why can't anyone snap some pics with a lomo for their own pleasure without some dork sneering at them?

I mean, come on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esTECxtVKG8
 
Funny, I often read people complaining about everyone going digital and thinking they are the next big thing, not taking photography seriously. Then, when students/younger generation actually attempt to learn and try analogue, there seems to be a underlying cynicism/backlash, instantly discounting it to "trendy", "unoriginal" or "not taking it serious"

Not sure how one speaks for those they do not know, or complain about future generations who might actually keep something alive that YOU would benefit from, regardless of their intention. I agree with Keith, Paul and others who see it as a positive thing, regardless of their motives.
 
I think I am still part of the youth. Twenty years old and I have been shooting film for almost three years already. Just got my M2 this year and enjoyment is an understatement. Haha.
 
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