Amid the spread of digital cameras and simple phone cameras, there is still a small unwavering community of photographers committed to using film. This community has been slowly growing throughout the 2010s, leading to a resurgence of the second hand camera market and bringing the entire analog industry back up from its knees after the digital boom.

Growing right here on the NYU Abu Dhabi campus, lies our own community of film photographers. From first timers learning to use the darkroom, to long time film enthusiasts, the NYUAD photography community tinkers around with a form of photography some thought was a thing of the past.

What is it about film photography that has brought a younger generation back from the digital era? People credit a variety of reasons for transitioning back into film. These range from the fun of collecting new cameras, to the insight film gives young photographers into the art of photography, or just trying something new and unique.

“I think it’s a big cultural thing in Japan. We have this disposable camera called Utsurun desu which made a comeback and I think trends in Tokyo are really easy to catch on to,” said Riko Morisawa, Class of 2022.

“When you aren't in it you feel really left out, so everyone tries it out right and my ex-boyfriend had a legit film camera. So he said I should try the disposable one first... It was just for fun so I developed it and I really liked the photos. You don't remember them sort of, but then they come out and you're like oh, wow! But they're permanent... more than digital photos.”

Morisawa now works with a Nikon EM, shooting in Abu Dhabi and capturing her travels. She is a strong supporter of color film after her experiences with disposable cameras.

Film photographers often deal with frameburn which often leads to interesting results. Photo by Riko Morisawa.

There are two ways to get involved in film photography on campus. Enrolling in Foundations of Photography gives students access to the darkroom as well as a single-lens reflex film camera (SLR) for the semester. The darkroom is located in the NYUAD Arts Center and only develops black and white prints. Students are taught the fundamentals of photography as well as an introduction to working with film developing equipment.

Professor of Visual Arts Tarek Al-Ghoussein encourages students to go off campus to shoot and gain experience taking photographs on the road. The students work on developing the photographs throughout the week and then present them in class to be critiqued and workshopped to eventually build a final portfolio.

Darkroom in the Arts Center. Photo by Taj Chapman.

For those unable to fit such a class into their schedule, View, the photography Student Interest Group, hosts a darkroom workshop taught by Professor Laura Schneider on campus every semester. Students are taught through a hands-on workshop and then given time to develop the roll of film that View supplies.

Students learn how to develop their film and create contact sheets. Photo by Taj Chapman.

“For now we're trying to make it a regular thing, every semester at least once,” said Martin Doumanov, the President of View, Class of 2021. “It's been great! We’ve had more people sign up than we’ve been able to take,” Doumanov added. He works with a Pentax k1000 and holds a nuanced opinion on the black-and-white or color film dispute.

Just like everyone else, Martin started as a beginner and slowly delved into the world of film. “Before I came to NYUAD, before we started doing the darkroom workshops I hadn't even touched a film camera, but because we got the opportunity to participate in the workshop, I got really into it and now I’m using View’s film camera for some personal projects.” he adds.

The film photography resurgence has led to the creation of a booming online second hand film market, with people re-selling old cameras though forums such as Reddit and Facebook. With a couple of Google searches and some luck, you could end up with second hand SLR in mint condition.

Some components of film photography by Taj Chapman

Large players in the industry, such as Kodak, have responded to this new trend. Last year the company revived its famous Kodak Ektachrome after being off the shelves for about six years. Harman Technology, manufacturer of the famous black-and-white Ilford film, reported a 5 percent growth in sales in 2017.

In a world saturated by the constant stream of images, young photographers are enjoying the challenge that comes with using film. Taking the time to slow down and shoot more meticulously is often brought up among student photographers.

“I think one of my favorite things is that with digital camera or an iPhone you have a million photos and you can take a bunch of photos of the same thing, whereas with film you have 24 or 36 photos and that's it,” said Sara Booth, Class of 2019.

“At first that was super intimidating for me. It would take me months to go through a roll of film and then I realized that not every photograph has to be perfect. I sort of made myself go through it a lot faster. I think when you have far fewer photographs you can appreciate them so much more. Even if they're not the best photos you could have possibly taken,” Booth expanded.

Booth has been shooting film since she was in highschool and has loved it ever since. She now shoots around campus using a Minolta SLR and the occasional Point-and-Shoot. She prefers color but occasionally switches to black-and-white, so she can work on developing the photos herself.

Some of Sara Booth’s photographs, developed in the NYUAD darkroom. Photo by Taj Chapman

The parallel and controversial trend of film camera apps has been slowly growing with Huji Cam at the forefront. Huji Cam mimics the analog aesthetics by softening colors and creating blurs, it even adds an old fashion timestamp on the bottom right part of your photograph to add to the effect. Huji Cam is a product of the Instagram age and source of great debate among photographers, some view it as a fun add on to phone cameras while others find it cliche and fake.

However, the desire to replicate the vintage aesthetics is proving lucrative for companies offering easy to use entry level film cameras. Fujifilm’s Instax series has been a huge success around the world with sales growing each year. The iconic cameras can be spotted on campus both in dorm rooms and at events such as the Office of Residential Education’s Midnight Breakfast to offer students a unique souvenir.

NYUAD is just a small speck in this thriving world of analog. New York City on its own is home to several professional film photographers and amateaur enthusiasts.

“I think in New York in general, it's like a new revolution of analog film, it's not the traditional analog film,” added Gabriel Demes, a student visiting NYUAD from NYU New York.

“I think a lot of people are shooting analog but they're scanning their negatives onto a computer. I think that's growing much more so than straight film camera, darkroom stuff like that. In terms of community on NYU campus. I know there are lots of different groups and communities. I was never one to be part of any specific communities.”

Demes started off teaching himself the basics of digital photography before discovering film. “I did a semester in Prague and they offered a photography... It was black-and-white analog photography and I thought that would be really cool,” added Demes about his first experience with film.

“The best way to really learn how to take a picture is just starting with the basics and I knew that was analog photography. Just throughout that class I fell in love with the whole process. I thought there was something more than just taking digital photographs you really are forced to think about what you’re doing. There are just a lot more things you need to think about or become actively aware of because you only have a set number of frames on each roll of film.” concluded Demes.

Being able to travel widely, NYUAD students tend to conserve shots and focus on taking meaningful pictures. Maximus Nobles, Class of 2021, who is now studying away at NYU Paris, is an experienced film user, choosing to restrict himself even further with medium format black-and-white photography — even rarer and more niche than the 35mm format that the average photographer uses.

“I basically find it far more restricting and challenging. Black and white forces me to look beyond what I can see with my own eyes. I am forced [to] look at the world around me in a completely different way and to make decisions based off of that as to what I want to capture in that moment,” said Nobles.

Medium Format brings about a very different aesthetic. Photo by Maximus Nobles.

Nobles is also facing the intriguing challenge of capturing a semester with very few print photographs.

“I restrict myself to one roll of film per-place I travel to, so I will hopefully have 12 interesting shots from Paris by the end,” he added.

With a growing community here on campus and around the world, there's no telling where film photography will go. Taking a look into the niche world of the creative photographers on campus, it seems very likely that more people are dusting off their parents’ old film cameras and getting ready to go off and start shooting. As Sara Booth said at the end of the interview, “Film is not dead!”