Analog love
I’m a child of the digital era. I’ll refrain from quoting Bad Religion here, but it’s pretty much correct - I’ve been raised on computers and video games. Ever since grade school, I’ve spent more than 2-3 hours in front of a computer every day. And, yes, my father used to do a lot of analog photography when he was younger, but all his gear was broken by the time I was old enough to be interested. I did play with point and shoot film cameras in high school, but that never held me - it wasn’t until I got to use and abuse a basic digital camera (a canon powershot of some sort) that I fell in love with photography.
Ever since then, I’ve always had a digital camera of some sort with me, at all times.
Then, in November 2009, I fell in love.
I did not intend to spend half my scholarship for that month on an old camera. By then, more than half a decade has gone since I shot a roll of film (June 2003 in Albania). I was just browsing the ads for a 50mm lens for my canon. But, as soon as I saw the ad for this Mamiya, I knew that it was meant for me. What followed is a love affair with film that culminated with Ibis and me owning more than 10 analog cameras, mostly of russian make, and with our place filled with rolls of developed film, cds with low-res scans, our walls covered with prints. Photography has changed from something digital, instant, unreal, non-corporeal, into a process for producing physical artifacts, into a mix of craft and magic.
At first, it was just the Mamiya. Later on, we got some less fancy cameras - a few Zenits, a Russian Contax knock-off (a Kiev 4), a few plastic viewfinders that were going 3 for a euro at the flea market.
Sadly, photo stores in Serbia suck. From a steady supply of Kodak Portra and TriX, as well as decent and affordable developing and scanning, I’ve been forced to use really crappy films and develop my own BW films, as no store in 50km will do that. While somewhat annoying, this is a big part of why photography has become a real thing, the total involvement in the entire process - from shooting the film, mixing the developer, then develping and scanning it myself.
