Why I shoot film

...and it's unintended consequences

I was talking to my nephew about photography, and he asked me why I shot film. At that point I really didn’t have a cohesive answer, and I still don’t and I am totally ok with that.

My pause after his question wasn’t confusion, It was honesty. Because my answer isn’t tidy, efficient, or especially convincing and it doesn’t fit neatly into a powerpoint presentation. It’s more like a shrug followed by a grin and well, a light financial cough.

I shoot film because it slows me down in a way nothing else does. It’s inconvenient, expensive, and unforgiving. My photos are the result of every decision I made from when I imagined what the photo would look like to when I pressed the shutter, and more often than not they aren’t quite the same. On top of that each photo costs real money, not “subscription money”, and that alone makes me pay attention and learn things quickly.

I shoot film because I don’t get instant gratification from it. I already get that from Amazon, Apple, Google, Ai, …. Did I nail it? Did I miss it? Did that perfect moment exist at all, or did I imagine it because the light felt right? Film lets me live in that uncertainty for a while. It’s akin to a Schrodinger state and I’ve found that creatively, it’s a much more interesting place to be.

I shoot film because, as Orson Wells said “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations”. One camera, one lens, one black and white film stock and If the photo doesn’t work, it’s not the gear. It’s me. Which is uncomfortable, and useful.

I shoot film even though I don’t develop it or print it myself. I know that Ansel Adams said “the negative is the score and the print is the performance” but I am not quite there yet. I may in the future, but right now I am enjoying learning, the experience, the community and supporting my friends and their new local lab. In the past week or two I’ve started writing about photography, so consider it a gradual approach.

I shoot film because it seems timeless. To me, it seems timeless because most of the photos of past events in human history are on black and white film. It just seems more permanent, more important than the billions of colour photos that people take every day with their phones. A great photo doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be too grainy, a little under or over exposed, or even a little out of focus. This is akin to the “F8 and be there” principle by Weegee. Perfect photos often seem over-processed, sharper and more colourful than reality

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Finally, I chose film because it’s expensive. That sounds ridiculous until you realize how quickly limitation sharpens intent. When you only have 36 frames, you stop photographing everything and start photographing something. Film doesn’t let you hide behind volume. It demands editing before you even press the shutter.

So when my nephew asked why I shoot film, I could’ve talked about tonality, latitude, or the way black and white simplifies the world into shape and light. All true. But the real reason is simpler and harder to explain: film makes me feel present. It asks something of me. It gives me just enough resistance to spark creativity and keep me honest.

And I’m totally ok with not having a cohesive answer—because neither does film.