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Features | Reflections

Benefits of Analog Photography

I was at a wedding recently where there were not only four professional photographers, but one overeager mother who, I swear, took 10,000 photographs. The device that turned us all into walking encyclopedias also turned us into walking paparazzi.

But if I were to go out on a limb, I bet that you would agree with me that the explosion in the quantity of photography has not been matched with the same increase in quality.

The device that turned us all into walking encyclopedias also turned us into walking paparazzi.

All of this has me thinking about my new year’s resolution, which was to get a hobby (any hobby!). Inspired by this wedding, I’m thinking I’ll take up analog photography. What’s to lose? Here’s the case in favor:

LEARN A NEW SKILL

Analog photography is an art—you can learn to adjust the focus, aperture and other factors, which gives you more control over the photo. It also forces you to pause and think about what you’re photographing, allowing you to savor the act of creating a memory.

MORE DIGITAL SPACE

Digital photos have turned into digital junk, taking up tons of storage space in form of thirty variations of posing with your best friend or ten iterations of your last brunch. Maybe they become one of the 1.8 billion images uploaded to the internet every day, or maybe they’ll languish forgotten in the archives. Analog photography can lighten that digital load!

DELAYED GRATIFICATION

There’s something magical about waiting for the film to develop into tangible memories you can hold in your hands.

With film, you can’t immediately look at the photo snapped, but is that so bad? There’s something magical about waiting for the film to develop into tangible memories you can hold in your hands, or laugh about how bad a particular shot came out.

If enough of us switch to analog, perhaps we can counterbalance ‘a society too busy filming childhood to enjoy it’ or correct for the loss of memory in details of something photographed instead of observed, also known as the ‘photo-taking-impairment-effect’.

To join us, you can enter to win an analog camera from our friends at Lomography and a night on us here.

If the photos turn out terribly, I’ll revert to my other favorite pastime: taking no photos at all.