The latest edition of Monocle has an article about the traction that film maintains in Japan [Film Stars]. While the numbers may be small (film cannot best the onward march of digital), it does in my opinion, illustrate something which oddly fits with the Japanese psyche. Retro cool? Sentimental regret? Just another Japanese subculture to enjoy?
The advantage in Japan, of course, are the huge number of recently “retired” used-cameras, at very reasonable prices; an abundance of shops that will actually sell a selection of decent film stock; the ability to process black-and-white almost anywhere (!); and a huge, photo-mad, gadget-saturated population…
So does this predilection towards film indicate craft, stubbornness, or nostalgia? Probably all three. But shops such as Map Camera — stocked to the rafters with beautiful, mint-condition, second hand cameras — are a seductive sight. It isn’t hard in Japan to arm yourself with a pretty decent camera and a pocket full of film. There is even choice: from obscure Soviet cameras to large format ones as big as your head, which can be found inside and out of the normal camera shop radar.
I’ll bet that a lot of the people chewing through film have come from shooting a lot of digital. In going back to film, they get to prove their photographic chops without chimping.
The result of all this is that there are film-loaded cameras in Japan exposing away in almost pointed contrition for discarded analogue ways. Of course this happens in other countries, but perhaps without the same readily accessible fervour.
Firing off exposures as loosely as people do with digital cameras may just create more visual noise – but there will always be beauty that emerges from the rough.