(Re)-Discovering analog photography with ars-Imago
Analog photography is becoming more and more popular these days offering a unique experience in terms of shooting compared to digital. Starting this journey forces us to go back to the basics of photography with a manual approach on how to handle our camera coupled with a different reality of time from the shoot to the development.
Many of us have started this journey and are seeking guidances. ARS-Imago is a specialised analog shop in Zurich offering this support and are sharing with us today their approach on analog photography and some tips to start with film camera.
Analog photography shop specialist in Zurich, can you walk us through the story of ars-imago and what can we find in your shop?
First of all thank you Arnaud for your questions! The story of ars-imago started 2004 in Zug, Switzerland where our CEO Alessandro Franchini wanted to buy some black and white developer at his local photography store. They told him that they are not able to get the product anymore. This was the moment he started ars-imago: A company devoted to analog photography and run by analog photographers.
In our store you’ll find all kind of photographic films, chemicals for development and printing, darkroom paper, laboratory equipment, second hand cameras, instant film and much more - basically everything you need for analog photography! We want to be an important place to find products and discuss about photography since we are first and foremost passionate analog photographers. We work with analog photography, we travel with our cameras, shoot almost daily, we spend a lot of time developing films and talking about old and new photography-related stuff and are happy to help and share our knowledge!
A few years later a second store opened in Rome, Italy and we are currently moving the store in Zurich to a new location (opening 12th of January 2021, Josefstrasse 53 in Kreis 5).
Shooting analog has something really special compared to digital where from my own experience, I find something really meditative to it. What are your views?
It’s definitely an experience! The process of taking your images on film, develop the film and see a print appear in the darkroom is something truly magical. It’s still fascinating to me and it’s a beautiful experience. Also there’s the little time gap, you are never really sure what you captured until you have processed the films.
While photographing I also have the feeling of calming down and focusing. Especially if you work with a large format camera where you have to think about quite a lot of things. What I really like is that you get away from the computer (if you scan the images that’s an unfair statement). You are doing something with your hands and do the process manually. Something I’m happy to do in our fast moving digital world.
But sure, this is not for everyone and I completely understand when you are enjoying the digital workflow. I don’t think one is better than the other, I’d say both are tools and you decide to use which one you think fits best. When discussing this question in our store, we usually answer with a very simple comparison: Ask any artist why they are painting with oil or acrylic colors - at the end it’s just a choice and a tool!
We see more and more people coming back to analog or even starting for the first time, what are your views on this existing trend?
There’s definitely something changing at the moment. In our store we have a lot of people that never made the switch to digital photography but also a lot who are just discovering it for the first time. We see more and more people finding the old camera from their parents or even grand parents and start to use them again.
Let’s not forget about instant pictures. With Fuji Instax and the Impossible Project (now called Polaroid again), the market for instant photography is very alive. And in my opinion this makes total sense: It’s such an awesome experience to see the picture appear in front of your eyes. And not only that, in our digital world, where you can send and copy everything so easy, this unique physical image has much more value. People use it to document important moments in their life like birthday parties or other events that mean something to them.
What would be your advice for someone starting analog photography and willing to start to develop herself/himself her/his films at home? Any tips to share?
Developing film is quite simple actually! All you need is a film tank, a changing bag (or a complete dark room) and the right chemicals. With the ars-imago LAB-BOX you are able to develop your films even without a darkroom or changing bag. It’s a daylight film development tank for 135 or 120 film that we produced. Together with our ars-imago monobath film developer you can develop your black and white film in 8 minutes - it’s that simple.
But developing your film is one thing, what do you do with the film negatives after development? For black and white images you can set up yourself a darkroom at home or rent a working space in a public darkroom. With color films it’s a bit more complicated, that’s where most people use a film scanner to scan the negatives, or make reproductions with digital cameras.
If you need any help, or have some questions feel free to ask us, we are happy to help. There are a few association and public darkrooms available depending on where you live. Working together in a darkroom can be very interesting and helpful.
And please don’t forget about safety: Take care and protect your eyes and hands, store chemicals away from children. Ask your local waste collection point how you can bring your chemical waste and use bottles that are made for chemicals. Please do not use any regular beverage bottles - somebody might try to drink it otherwise!
Top 3 analog cameras and top 3 films?
This is a really difficult question! I think part of the fun with analog photography is trying out different cameras and films. But let’s try to pick out my three favorite ones.
For films, I would split it up to B&W, C-41 and E-6:
B&W: Ilford HP5, it’s a wonderful classic black and white film
C-41: Kodak Ektar 100: It’s a very fine grain emulsion with good contrast and lovely colors
E-6: Fuji Provia 100f: In my opinion the most versatile slide film that is currently available on the market
As for cameras, this is much more complicated! But some of my favorite cameras would definitely be the Mamiya 6, Nikon F3 and the Polaroid SLR 680. But that’s no final selection, there are just too many fun cameras out there. Let’s not forget the Holga!
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