The Life, Death and the Revival of Film Photography

Film Photography is considered one of the most interesting way to capture photos because you

will not know the result until you develop it using chemicals. People during the early days call it

“magic” since it involves a complex process. The origins of film began when George Eastman

invented it, creating a new leap in the world of photography, years later he built his own

company called Kodak which is one of the most iconic companies that spearheaded the film

photography industry. This marked the birth of film, everyone in the world that has a camera in

the 20th Century used film to capture, record and create photos. Everyone until all of it was gone,

and there comes the question that some of the newer generation of society asked and wondered.

How did Film died and how was it brought back to life?

To illustrate, let us go back to last 30 years of the 20th century wherein Photographic Technology

skyrocketed. In this specific time range, different camera companies focused into new

innovations for their cameras in order for their product to be the perfect choice for the general

public for photography. Innovations like autofocus, autoexposure were essential since these help

people to properly expose film in order to get a photo of something. While companies are heavy

on researching, a breakthrough happened. Steven Sasson, an employee at Kodak invented the

Digital Camera in 1975 which processes images in seconds, but the company kept it a secret,

because it could be seen as the end of the Film Industry. Two decades later, Pixar introduced

Digital Processing which marked the start of the digital way of creating photos, years later during

the 1990’s and 2000’s, companies started making digital cameras and abandoning their complete

line-up of film cameras. People were amazed that their photos could be seen in seconds unlike
film which takes days and money to develop, they see digital as an effortless way to capture

photos. This created a reaction, without cameras that use film, it became an obsolete material and

over the years, fewer and fewer people are starting to use digital cameras that have better

technologies and require less effort to take photos. As a result Kodak, the number one producer

of film filed for Bankruptcy. Film, a medium used in creating photos is now gone, or that’s what

people think, years later a spark created a revival of the “magic” our grandparents and parents

knew during their time. Private companies bought most of Kodak’s patents and reproduced film

again, after decades of decline the magic of film photography has been increasing primarily

because of new generations of practitioners who grew up with digital technology but have began

dabbling in film. They discovered the “magic” and many of them simply fell in love with it.

In conclusion how did Film died and how was it brought back to life? Going back to the idea,

film died because of its own complications, disadvantages and technicality errors which led to

the invention of digitalizing photos to fill the gaps film once had like time, effort and money to

develop photos, unlike digital which you can see the result in seconds. The revival of film is

caused by the newer generation of Photographers discovering the “magic” film had, and simply

fell in love with it. In addition to the statement, companies bought patents of old film companies

and recreated film, leading people curious about the process of film and became intrigued. So, if

you see a young photographer using a 50-year-old camera that doesn’t have a screen and only

relying on light to capture photos, that’s film photography, and no matter what the cost it takes to

develop, people only matter to the end result of the photos. The timeless, classic medium we all

considered to be forgotten and dead is now being accepted in today’s changing world.