I think we’ve all been there. That place where something you love because of its obscurity, its uniqueness, and how it makes you feel, gets co-opted by a celebrity. All you can do as their image flashes up on every gossip and news site is just utter curse words and hope that it doesn’t become a trend with all of their followers and fans because somehow you just KNOW that when your hobby or love goes mainstream it will just be ruined… taken from you and then rubbed in your face by people who you KNOW can’t possibly love it as much as you do.
My unique and used-to-be obscure love is film photography.
Years ago I fell in love with a set of photos taken by a Diana camera. They were these pink, dreamy photos of some carnival rides (what else, amirite?) and they stayed with me on my mind until one day I decided I wanted to be the one to take photos like that! I was sure I could do it, bought a Lomography Diana F and kit off of eBay and away I went snapping!
The closest I ever got to replicating those carnival photos
Recently, The Lily published a post called How Kendall Jenner is Bringing Back Film (and ruining it for some).
In the vein of being honest, I’ll admit when I saw the title and post featured by the Japan Camera Hunter Facebook page, my heart hurt.
I don’t watch the Jenner shows (Kardashian?) and I don’t know which sister is which (I spent 15 minutes searching for Kylie Jenner in order to link to the article), but I do know the amount of people who watch and follow their every breath is ginormous! Kendall Jenner alone has 86.4 million followers on Instagram! SO many of those people copy the family… and I know that means people all over the world are going to be buying MY film cameras, using MY film and driving up prices. I don’t want to share.
I want to shout from the rooftops that “it’s mine it’s mine it’s mine and you can’t have it!!!”
One of the things I love so much about film was how many flaws there were. I started to realize my favorite photos were the ones with something so very clearly wrong with them. They had scratches from the camera, the film was expired, I opened the back too early and exposed half of the film to light, and were so often misaligned because truly, I had no idea what the difference between all of my Diana lenses really was.
Annnnndddddd in the midst of my pouting about film becoming so popular, I had a surprisingly mature (for me!) thought. There are those who fall in love with these outdated items and hobbies, film cameras, vinyl, cassettes, and so on who give it up the moment it becomes mainstream. They are the ones who cry “I did it before it was cool!”, and then pack their hobby or collection away because gosh forbid they do the same thing as a celebrity. They aren’t in love with any part of it, other than they can say to their friends, family, and strangers online that they are unique because they do something that most people don’t any longer. They like the confusion it generates among their peers, answering questions, and having it and them, be the center of attention.
They just don’t love it.
I’m a pretty OCD person, and I don’t mean that in just the “ha ha my house is spotless” kind of way, I mean… I have some pretty serious obsessive compulsive tendencies that I’m working through with a doctor. My photos are really one of the few areas in my life where I can see a mistake or problem and it makes me love the photo more. I don’t question myself, or attempt to get a perfect photo. I don’t spend more than two shots on one subject trying to get the right lighting and exposure… because for some reason, I’m okay with the photo not turning out.
I love my film, my cameras and my photos.
So, I’ve put my big girl panties on and after self-reflecting on my poutiness, my feelings, and my new Polaroid cameras I just got… there are some good things about film becoming popular again. The odds of companies producing film again that was once discontinued just grows! For those who stick with hobbies through the times when it becomes popular, we can only benefit! Maybe someone like me, who sets several alarms clocks, apologizes many times during the day for not providing a perfect whatever, and counts their steps could find some kind of acceptable and unknown chaos in film photos as well. Maybe, that celebrity who is drawing their followers to an Instax, SuperSampler, or a Contax T2, should be acknowledged as showing everyone a new outlet for creativity or a new hobby. Maybe some child is going to pick up a camera and create the next art movement.