Film photography is a thing of the past. Ever since digital cameras slowly started to take over in the 1990s, film has been pushed to the curb. Into the early 2000s, San Luis Obispo High School’s room 510 used to be a well used darkroom, but today it is a storage closet.
SLOHS offers photo classes include Digital Photography A and B. There is no darkroom photography class. Now, it makes since that film is not taught anymore because nobody really does it. However, that doesn’t mean that some people don’t want to learn it. Should an elective heavy school like SLOHS offer a darkroom class?
By learning darkroom photography, students can learn the value and delicacy of photography. Because film is so fragile and the darkroom process is so slow, digital looks like a breeze compared to the hurricane of film.
“I think film photography is so cool. It’s unusual and unique now compared to just digital photos. I feel like the process would be so rewarding, and it would teach me the value and process of making art,” said sophomore Emmersen Hill.
Film photography boomed in the early to mid 1900s. Taking pictures has been popular since the 1930s, but it wasn’t till the 1950/1960s when color film became affordable for an everyday person, even though it was available in 1907. Since cameras have developed over time and become digital, it makes sense why people don’t practice darkroom anymore. Digital pictures are higher quality, easier to process, and upload, plus way less expensive, so why would anyone want to learn film?
“Ideally, I would love for every student to be able to take darkroom photography. There is something so magical about watching the picture develop on the film when you put it in the chemicals. The difficult part is, with so many students taking our photography classes it would cost a fortune in film, chemicals, and just fitting everyone in the darkroom at one time would be really, really hard for our class,” said digital photo classes teacher Zach Roper.
In the last couple of years the use of disposable cameras have become very popular for teenagers. It is because film is now unusual and cool. It is different from what we constantly see on our social media pages of high quality, over edited pictures. Popular creators such as David Dobrik have even created apps that act as disposable cameras.
“Yeah I have David’s disposable app. It’s really cool, but not as cool as actual film pictures. When you take a picture you have to wait a while till you can see them, which is what I think is David’s way of making it as close to actual film as possible,” said Hill.
Teens are using so much film, but aren’t really learning the official process of developing the negatives. If there was a class that taught students film photography, then students might appreciate the art of photography greater.
Sources: flickr.com
