Bright picture develops for photo film and prints

Adrian Clarke with very short dark hair and beard, wearing a Camera Box hoodie and standing in his shop. Shelves are visible with boxes of film, smart cards, cameras and accessories behind him.Image source, Kate Bradbrook/BBC
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Adrian Clarke said more young people were coming into his shop to print photos

  • Published

The owners of two photography firms said they had witnessed a rise in young people taking an interest in the technology of yesteryear, with more demand for shooting on film and photo printing.

Adrian Clarke, who runs a shop in Kettering, Northamptonshire, believed youngsters were enjoying keeping their memories on "something tactile" rather than leaving them as digital files on smartphones.

Dawn Branigan, from Daventry, said she had also noticed a "resurgence of the use of 35mm film".

Young people have been telling the BBC about how they have been compiling physical albums and scrapbooks for their favourite shots.

With phones, laptops and tablets being able to store thousands of photos, and space in the cloud for millions more, you might think youngsters would not want to spend money getting individual snaps printed out.

But Mr Clarke, who runs independent store Camera Box, said he had seen an upsurge in demand for printed photos.

He said: "Over the past couple of years, it's probably the 30 and below who are doing mostly printing, and they are printing physical prints again now.

"I think people like something tactile, they like to have a physical item."

He explained that in the digital age, it was still easy for people to lose photos.

"They haven't backed them up or they lose a phone and they're losing those memories, so I think now there's this push to print photos again," he said.

Lily with long dark hair wearing a light brown fleece top and standing in a shopping street. A Costa A-board is visible behind her and some shoppers are making their way down the street.Image source, Kate Bradbrook/BBC
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Lily, 20, prints out photos to put in scrapbooks

Lily, who is 20, told the BBC: "I print them and put them in a scrapbook - I like taking pictures of nature, friends, family, anything really."

Another young person, Becki, said: "My photos are on my phone and I just print from my phone - just so my house looks like a home, really."

She said she had a traditional wedding album for pictures of her happy day, and one for her children.

Not all pictures being printed are from a phone, however. The last few years have seen the revival of digital cameras.

A roll of 35mm film on a yellow reel - some has unwound from the reel and is curled up and lying next to it.
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Old-fashioned 35mm film, which has to be developed, is said to be making a comeback

There has also been a surprising renaissance of 35mm film.

Mr Clarke said: "We sell more film than we've done in years.

"It's not the cheapest way of doing it, but I think they like the magic of film photography."

He added: "With the digital, you take that photo, it's instant, but with film, until it comes back from the developers, you don't know what you're going to get.

"You might get some prize winners or they might be a load of rubbish."

Dawn Branigan with long blonde hair and wearing a blue and green top.Image source, Dawn Branigan
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Dawn Branigan, who owns a photographic business in Daventry, said more people were using 35mm film

On the other side of the county, Ms Branigan, who has run First Light Photographic in Daventry for two decades, said she had also seen a renewed interest in physical film.

She said: "I think I was first aware of the resurgence of the use of 35mm film and analogue cameras when lomography started to become fashionable - although this genre of photography has been around since the 1990s, it was only really 10 years or so ago that I became aware of it as a trend.

"Now the demographic of the people wanting to buy 35mm or 120 film is either the young or those of an age who still only use a mobile phone for making calls."

Paul Greenwood, head of research and insight at creative agency We Are Social, previously told the BBC that "the grainy kind of content you see" from older methods of photography was "basically shorthand for authenticity and realness".

"That's what Gen Z are looking for," he said.

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