Film Photography News

In 2006, Michael Crouser took the first photograph in his mountain ranch project. Ten years later he took the last image to complete Mountain Ranch, the book that grew from the project. He calls the book “an exploration of the disappearing world of cattle ranching in the mountains of Colorado,” but it’s more than that: it’s a story of the ties and traditions of families, and a story of an America that was, struggling to still be.

In yet another attempt to merge the “experience” of analog cameras with digital output (see our rant about the recently announced Yashica Y35 camera), a new Kickstarter project promises to deliver digital photos and videos with analog cameras via a 16MP digital back.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a big resurgence in film photography lately among both students and more experienced shooters. Manufacturers are getting in on the action too, with a growing number of discontinued films being reintroduced, as well as new emulsions appearing on the market.

A couple weeks ago we shared a revealing visit to the home of iconic American photographer Edward Weston. In the video below you’ll take a virtual tour of Weston’s darkroom, guided by his grandson fine art photographer Kim Weston. 

Today’s digital cameras have become so adept at almost any shooting situation that, paradoxically, they can inhibit creativity by always delivering a technically perfect result. With little effort, a photographer can produce a sharp, clear, well-exposed image, color balanced and, well, a bit too perfect.

The accurate colorization of old black-and-white photos involves a combination of artistry, painstaking research, physics and digital technology. And when the effort yields a realistic and vibrant reconstruction of the historical past, the result is quite magical.