Nostalgia is a drug that tempts every generation. The mystery, enigma, and transient nature of the past never ceases to intrigue. There is something romantic about things you cannot touch, about things that seem far away. The resurgence of film photography in youth is a personification of this feeling.

This fascination with nostalgia is an aged practice. William Wordsworth wrote in 1804:

“What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower?”

Nostalgia is grounding. Our memories feel concrete and built on warmth. The lens of retrospect often trims the edges on our recall. Context considered, it’s almost rose-colored. It feels secure, safe, and intimate. It feels splendid. It makes film photography all the more appealing.

In a social climate defined by accessibility, the allure of tools that require patience and produce physical reward is high. Film photography, or 35 mm film, is a combination of plastic, specific light-sensitive emulsion that captures an image upon light exposure. Film is used in analogue cameras. Typically, there are 36 pictures per roll that subsequently require storage, developing, and processing. Ilford Photo found that 30% of film users were under 35, and 60% of them had only begun using it in the past 5 years. Film photography is free of social media filters, and instant gratification is removed. The imperfection of a moment is captured, thus so is the authenticity. There is no option to fiddle with the minutiae of the image; you must wait in clear, sharp anticipation. You must savor the moment.

The world in the lifetime of Gen Z has been punctuated with unprecedented displays of international inequality, the ominous threat of a fascist revival, and a global pandemic. Our status quo is driven by technology in excess, and the slow death of capitalism. It’s almost inevitable that this has driven a longing for eras that held a higher capacity of optimism. It’s nostalgic.

Nostalgia is a timeless feeling, but the word was coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer. It is the combination of the Greek words, nostos and algos - homecoming, and pain. There is a connotation of loss, as though grief works as a companion to nostalgia to form a constant, fond mourning of days gone by. A practice of yearning. Film photography, with the dreamy aesthetic of a realm unbridled by immediacy, is an apt vessel for these feelings.

In psychological terms, nostalgia helps to preserve our sense of self. It reconciles the past and present versions of ourselves and helps us form the notion of who we’d like to become. It connects us to one another, through shared experience and emotion. Connection steeped in reality is a rare commodity in the modern world. It is an easily forgotten, edited concept commodified by the likes of social media. Film photography works as an antithesis to this. It forces you to slow down, consider the moment and the people you are going to capture, and if it is worth one of the finite 36 images allowed - and the subsequent cost of development.

Photographer Walter Rothwell is quoted as saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. The limited images, manual process of development, and the cost associated with film are motivating factors in truly considering your landscape and your muse. The results are often colorful, diverse, and entirely singular.

Forces such as war, climate change, and the injection of AI into everyday life are warping the human landscape at an extraordinary speed. Identity individual to each decade seen in the 20th century is not occurring in the same fashion now, with access to the internet and a virtual archive of culture available with a click. It’s become a melting pot.

Film photography is representative of days that were colored by a larger innocence, a slower pace. There wasn’t an onslaught of media and information that was essentially inescapable. And nothing was instant.

Living through a time in which waiting periods were non-negotiable created an inherent mindfulness. The modern youth is chasing this as a method of de-programming their brains. The revitalized popularity of vinyl in music, or the increased inspiration taken from the fashions of the 1970s and 1990s similarly show this desire.

The film photography revival also breathes life into a community formed around creativity and passion. It has begun to create a demand that is almost impossible to meet. In the past decade, vendors have seen a few rolls in need of development per week become hundreds per day. According to store-owners, many of the patrons coming through are under 30 - a generation that has collectively realized the photos on our camera roll do not measure up to the worn, yet solid, photo albums in the closets of our childhood home.

Film photography is tactile, where the globe is increasingly virtual. It’s an aesthetic that simultaneously preaches simplicity whilst delivering depth. In the wake of rising unemployment, a multitude of economic crises, and emotional burn-out, the lust for superficiality is dulled. Film photography provides a morsel of reality that is not altered by modernity.

The comeback of film photography by the youth of society is an embrace of nostalgia. It is a direct response to a life permeated with extreme technological advancement, and an uncertain global future. It is a method in which our lives can be repositioned in focus, with warmth and depth and spontaneity. It is a romanticization of the past, but also a shroud of hope for the future.

William Somerset Maugham once said; “each youth is like a child born in the night who sees the sun rise and thinks that yesterday never existed.” But sometimes, we find ourselves chasing sunsets.

Article by Darcie Humphreys, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Jung Chou, Graphic Design Intern, PhotoBook Magazine

Double Exposure: The Resurgence of Film Photography and the Love of Nostalgia