Ever since my grandparents cleaned out their storage and handed me down a Yashica FX-3 Super film camera, I was entranced in the art of analog photography. I take for granted the ability to take photos and store memories with phones these days way too easily. I take it for granted so much that I don’t even do it often. I just use it to take photos of my cats looking scrunkly or whatever. The value of photography to me is lost, I didn’t see it as something I should cherish, or enjoy the aesthetics of. It’s just pixels on my phone screen, probably a bit crunchy looking too because my phone has tiny-tiny pixel sizes.
But now, as I really really delve into film photography, I am forced to value photos better. To value memories more, not just as pixels on a screen, but also as well, a reminder of good times of past. Now that every single shot has a price, albeit very-very prone to sunk cost fallacy, I really do save my exposures for those moments. And I seek those moments now, finding times or reasons to enjoy life with friends, bringing my Kodak Ektar H35 with me, just to make memories. There’s value to every single exposure, not just the value of the film roll and the development process itself, no. But also a sentimental value that I can’t describe. I value those 80 or so pictures I took on film much more than the thousands of photos I have in my Google Photos, and for good reason. I actually have people I care about in them, because take care on what I would shoot with them. And well, I got them. It’s lovely.
I could’ve just yapped about how I love the aesthetics of film photography, how the warm grain and colors are good, but I feel like yapping about how it created more value and care about photography back for me. And yeah, if you have the resources, try it out. It’s an expensive hobby, but if you really feel like life hasn’t had that much meaning lately, it’s a great way to push yourself to find that value.
previously posted on Medium at https://medium.com/@fjello/the-lost-value-of-memories-3ef6fb8b0675
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