Why Shooting on Film Won't Make You a Better Photographer
Dispelling the romantic notions of the superiority of the analog process.
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On my first day of teaching an MFA class a few months ago, I asked students what they photograph, and the answers startled me. A few people said the exact same thing, “I shoot film.” I clarified that the question wasn't about how but what you shoot. The room felt silent, then answers started trickling in — portraits, sports, conceptual. We were making progress now, but I was struck by the first instinctual response to the question. If you replace “film” with digital or iPhone, the absurdity of the answer becomes obvious, but film holds such a mystique for art students that they confuse the method with the subject.
I have been thinking about the mythology of film since. There is a pervasive notion among film fetishists that it will make someone’s work better. I’d argue the opposite, that film can actually make you a worse photographer if that’s the first and only tool at the beginning of someone’s practice.
Before I delve into those arguments, a confession.