Autumn in Reposo @Canonet Junior
There seems to be no stopping the march of digital camera stormtroopers in their quest for world photo domination. Everyone and his mother has a digital camera of some sort, to be whipped out at the smallest excuse for a photo op. Despite this, however, there remains a glimmer of analog hope, an old-school antithesis to the ones and zeroes that digital photography offers: film cameras. Contrary to popular belief, film is certainly not dead. While it continues to thrive among professionals and hobbyists, whose passion for film rivals that of pro-sport fans, film has found a popular resurgence of sorts among folks who want to shrug off the snobbery of Photography (with a capital P) without succumbing to the beep-beeping siren call of digital. I refer to the allure of toy cameras, Lomos, Holgas, Horizons, pinhole cameras, vintage TLRs, instamatics and other film cameras.
Photos shot on film in general, and shot with toy cameras in particular, are imbued with a certain mystique, an atmospheric quality that digital seems to have difficulty in producing. Part of it is the grain of the film, part of it is the unpredictable nature of these cheap cameras with the film stock – light leaks, soft focus, etc. Maybe it’s the aged patina that film shots have that distinguish them from those off a digital camera. Maybe it’s the imperfections that are so painfully obvious on film shot on toy cameras that contrast greatly with the crisp sharpness of a DSLR. Whatever floats your boat.
Here, then is my tribute to travel photos shot on such cameras. I’ll be posting mine and accepting submissions from readers as well. Let’s begin!
