Kodak seeks employees for the unexpected resurgence of film cameras | Technology

Gone is the audible memory of the cameras of a lifetime: the click of the shutter and the rattle of the film passing… The iPhone and the like practically extinguished the photography of patience and development, but not completely. A manufacturer, Kodak, decided to continue betting, along with other great references in the world of photography such as Fuji or Ilford, for conventional photography and it seems that this bet, against all odds, is going well.

In a brief tweet, the Rochester (New York) company announced that it had started a new contracting cycle due to a demand for traditional reels that had “shot up” in recent years. in the age of smartphones and of the “point and shoot”, a new current against it suggested that a sector of the market wanted to return to calm, patience and discovery of developing.

More than 300 new employees

This unexpected rage for a production process that seemed to have been surpassed has partially disrupted the manufacturer’s plans. Although it had kept the reels in its product catalog alive, this sudden explosion in demand was not expected. “Our distributors keep telling us that 35mm film is disappearing from their shelves,” explains Nagraj Bokinkere, head of Kodak’s conventional photography division, to the specialized photography website Petapixel.

This executive has highlighted that the company has been forced to go from a single shift from Monday to Friday dedicated to this product, to multiplying by three the shifts working 24 hours a day, including weekends. Specifically, Kodak has hired 300 new employees in the last 18 months, and that still doesn’t seem to be enough. Why this resurgence? of the conventional reel?

The physical and the imperfect

“This from Kodak is a very symbolic fact,” says Iker Morán, a journalist specializing in photography. This expert alludes to a return to the value of the “physical format, imperfect aesthetics versus megapixels”, referring to the almost unbearable perfection of photographs taken with a smartphone modern. With a latest generation iPhone or Android, it is almost impossible for the photo to be of poor quality, even if it is taken while moving and with almost no focus.

Multiple optics, algorithms and artificial intelligence do the dirty work of the shooter, achieving spectacular results from any shot. And now there is no waiting: you take a photo and it appears instantly on the screen, completely free of charge. The reference to cost is not trivial: in the days of the reel, each development cost money and, of course, time; This forced the photographer to be more exquisite when it came to pressing the shutter button, and to work much more on elements such as framing, focus and speed and aperture of the diaphragm.

“Analogue has come to stay”

“For us, it’s one of the most anticipated news,” says Albert Roig, founder of the Carmencita Film Lab analog development laboratory, without hiding his enthusiasm. Like Kodak, it has consistently resisted the wave of digital. “That the industry puts analogue photography back in the spotlight has always been our objective, and not only at a professional level, but we really believe that it is a medium that contributes a lot to the creative community and has a very reason to exist. important,” he explains.

On the other hand, this passion for what vintage photography has also been noted in relation to the sale of reel cameras, which is experiencing its peculiar golden age, and causing an increase in their prices. The industry was simply not ready for this twist in the script and the high demand has turned SLRs into a new object of desire for photography lovers.

Why this return to the old? According to Roig, part of the clients seek to recover “the experience of use and the magic that the medium provides. The experience that analog offers for the five senses is not comparable to the coldness of digital or taking photos with a mobile”. In the process of photography, elements such as the weight of the camera, its sound, its touch, “and even the smell” have a value that is now missing.

“It’s like comparing a piece of solid wood furniture with another from IKEA,” says Roig, who does not hesitate to establish another comparison that is impossible to avoid: vinyl against music services in streaming, such as Spotify, a format that not only continues to resist, but has registered a 22% increase in sales in the first half of the year in the United States. Will the return of the reel be a fad? “No one has a crystal ball, but it seems that analog formats are here to stay”, explains Roig, since, in his opinion, “life is not made only of zeros and ones [el código binario de la computación]”.

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