The comeback of film photography: Nostalgia fuels Gen Z’s passion for  analogue photography

As the hours slipped away during pandemic restrictions, 23-year-old Sydney Daniels remembers seeing viral photos and videos of people showing off their Portra 400 film photographs on social media. 

“I like the vibe of the disposable film cameras with the flash,” said Daniels, a second-year student at Mount Royal University. “It’s a certain way, like you can’t get that with anything else.”

Outselling film cameras for the first time in 2003, digital cameras became the primary photographic tool for a majority—if not the entirety—of the lives of those currently between the ages of 12 and 27. On top of that, every smartphone comes with increasingly sophisticated cameras. But since 2019, the market value of disposable film cameras has steadily increased.

While the world hit pause, Gen Zer’s hit rewind on film cameras. Seventeenth century author Jonathan Swift said it best with his famous quote: “Everything old is new again.” Embracing the charming imperfections offered by vintage cameras in a digital era defined by perfectly filtered selfies, Gen Zer’s exchanged digital clarity for analogue grain. 

Hashtagging over 40,000 posts under “#disposablecamera” on TikTok, Gen Zer’s who were teenagers during the heat of 2020’s pandemic restrictions made up 70 per cent of the app’s users.   

Capturing the moment

While social media planted the analogue seed, Daniels says that it was his friends who solidified his interest in film photography. 

“Having friends with those cameras and the combination of me feeling like I’m missing out on this from social media just pushed me to get into it,” said Daniels. 

Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, Daniels’s earliest memory of film photography was looking through his family’s collection of negatives (rolls loaded into a camera and later developed into a photograph) in an attempt to distinguish who-is-who from the imprints that are revealed upon holding the sheets up to the light.

“There’s a nostalgic feeling that you get from the film,” said Daniels. “When you print the prints out at the lab, it looks exactly like all the pictures in your family albums.”

Often sparked by feelings of boredom and loneliness, nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing for one’s past.” Caused by extreme social isolation, nostalgia is proven to have been an emotion felt widespread during pandemic restrictions, according to a 2024 study published by the University of Southampton.

Enrolled in the Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership program, Daniels shoots film while hiking, climbing and camping with friends most often. 

“I have that kind of connection with really good memories, good places, good people and then film,” said Daniels. “Most of the best things that have happened to me in the past three years that I’ve been here have had a little disposable camera to capture it.”

Printing physical copies when getting a roll developed, Daniels prefers tangible photographs over digital prints because it forces him and his friends to physically get together whenever they want to take a walk down memory lane — promoting in-person bonds instead of gluing their eyes to a smartphone and scrolling up until they find the image they’re looking for.

“When everyone comes around, you just whip it out and you’re like ‘this is from this day’ with the dates on the back and everything,” said Daniels. “It takes me back to the good days.”

Memories come to life in the darkroom

Decorated with pictures and newspaper prints is a 1960’s style teal-and-cream coloured lobby in the basement of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (SAIT) Senator Burns building. A doorway stands between a seating area and multi-tap sink station which, when opened, welcomes a vinegar-akin scent — revealing six stainless steel bucketed table-tops that glisten under ceiling lights emitting a faint golden hue. Otherwise, the room is almost completely black. 

“When you’re developing film, you’re in this dark place,” said Danny Miller, 62. “It kind of feels like a sanctuary.”

Originally having shot digital photography, Miller is a photography instructor who gained an affection for black and white film photography after completing George Webber’s continuing education course offered at SAIT, where Miller has been employed at as a member of the journalism faculty since 1998.

“The really great thing for me was taking the class here at SAIT,” said Miller. “It was a basic darkroom class and that’s when it became a passion for me.”

For Miller, nothing beats the rush he feels when the scene that he first saw through a viewfinder comes to life as a palpable copy after he’s finished the developing process.

For Daniels, film brings back warm reminders of a childhood spent with family and serves the modern purpose of documenting time spent with friends.

Despite decades dividing them, they can agree on one thing: there’s nothing like a physical photograph. 

“It’s really gratifying to hold that print in your hand when you’re done developing,” said Miller. “There’s just something about working with your hands that the digital part of it just doesn’t have.”

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