Camille Labrecque bought her first digital camera a few years ago, when she was 15 years old. By then, iPhones and other smart phones were already proliferating. But like many Gen Zers, his interest in photography flourished thanks to retro cameras.
“My phone didn’t have as many settings as a camera, which I found more special,” says 21-year-old Camille Labrecque. “You can play with lots of settings, and that makes photography more concrete as an activity,” explains the one who inherited her father’s passion.
Despite the advent of social networks like Instagram, where the photos circulating are often of high quality and retouched, many young people in their twenties are now snapping up old models of cameras, whether film, digital or Polaroid, in a sort of return to photographic sources. And the devices popular with young people are not those of professional caliber and sold for several thousand dollars: they are mostly small, accessible and inexpensive models, the very ones that were so popular during the 2000s.
Recently, Camille Labrecque turned to analogue models (also known as film or film cameras), whose photos are frozen on a film inserted in the case and which must be further developed.
She is not the only one to have made this turn. The hashtag #filmcamera (“film camera”) has more than 760 million views on TikTok. Several videos that include this hashtag and which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views are produced by young adults, who explain how the device works and show the photos produced.
In the new technology, something is missing. It’s too clean, too good. We don’t find the texture and the organic process specific to film cameras.
The hashtag #digitalcamera (“digital camera”, in French) has accumulated more than 300 million views. It is precisely for a digital camera that Charles Girard opted for his trip to Tokyo this summer. The 19-year-old college student could certainly have been content with his phone to immortalize the best moments of his journey, but he believes that the end result would not have been the same. “When you go on a trip, a digital camera is even better because you want to print the photos and have them in real life, which I wouldn’t do with phone photos,” he explains.
In the UK, online shopping site eBay told the BBC that the number of searches on the site for “retro digital cameras” increased by 13% in the last three months of 2022. Searches for “refurbished cameras” increased by 52% during the same period.
More than a trend
If the popularity of these retro objects is skyrocketing among young people in the Anglo-Saxon world, Quebec is not to be outdone. At least that’s what Bobby Tanoutasi, owner of the Photo Tek Canada store, observes. Located on avenue du Mont-Royal, not far from boulevard Saint-Laurent, in Montreal, the discreet business hides in the urban fauna. But the interior turns out to be a real Ali Baba’s cave for anyone who loves photography.
“Everything we sell is manual,” explains Bobby, who has been running the shop for 20 years. Behind his counter, he proudly points to the various cameras that fill the shelves of his room. We see old devices, which must be worth a small fortune, as well as smaller models, accessible to the greatest number. The back room is a joyful bric-a-brac, where various devices stacked on top of each other mingle.
“Retro cameras are a throwback to basics,” he believes. “In the new technology, something is missing. It’s too clean, too good. We don’t find the texture and the organic process specific to film cameras. »
For several years, he has noticed a growing interest in these objects among young people in the Plateau-Mont-Royal. “Before the pandemic, hipsters had started to be interested in the devices, and the interest increased during the pandemic,” he recalls. “After the pandemic, I thought it would stop, but no! » During the passage of the Duty At the store, on a Saturday afternoon, a young customer was indeed passing through to get a film camera, her very first.
“We see a lot of students passing by who take up photography as a hobby,” says Zach Lata. Newly employed in the trade, the young woman is also passionate. “There’s a special feeling that comes with retro gear,” she says. “That’s the element of surprise. With an iPhone you get what you see, but with a film camera you don’t know until you develop the photos. For her, the return to such objects is not just a fad or a trend. “Everyone is going back to film cameras! »
Bobby Tanoutasi notes that his business is popular with photography enthusiasts who are increasingly young. “I have customers who buy their first devices as young as 11,” he says with a smile. “I also have a 14-year-old client who has a collection of 20 cameras. I want to encourage him, so sometimes I give him small devices as gifts. »
Like what, despite the high quality objectives of smart phones, some young people choose to abandon them to turn to models known to their parents and grandparents. Back to basics? Quest for authenticity? Want to get more involved in the act of photographing? Maybe a bit of all of these.