Today, everybody and his monkey has a digital camera. You point and shoot, and the picture can be viewed immediately on the screen on the back of your digital camera. Then the photos are transferred to your personal computer and edited, lightened or darkened, dodged, burned, adjusted, retouched, and sent out over the internet via e-mail or to a world wide web page. All within minutes of making the shot.
But it wasn’t always this way. At one time all photographers had to load their cameras with film from Kodak, Fuji or Agfa. One side of the film had a light sensitive emulsion, so it had to be loaded in the dark. And no results were available until after the film was processed with chemicals which was usually the next day. If you wanted to put the pictures online, then the film had to be scanned. It was all a very complicated and slow process.
But there was a certain simplicity and beauty in the ancient processes of film scanning and pre-press. Loading film, darkrooms, chemical processing and drum scans all bring back a kind of nostalgia for better times, more innocent times, when we were younger and better looking.
Even if it was just 10 or 15 years ago.
So we are pleased to announce a new category for LBB: Shot on Film. It is listed under the Picture & Sound Department along with the other media collection categories. Enjoy your trip through photographic history!
