Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed readers and all of you who have no idea what this website is, welcome to two years of EMULSIVE! Time really does fly when you’re having fun or in my case, burning film.

As luck would have it, a slot in my editorial calendar just happened to be open on June 1st, EMULSIVE’s birthday, and I wanted to extend a huge thanks to all of you who regularly visit this website, as well as the band of crack community contributors, who help share so many wonderful words, thoughts and pictures.

While I’m at it, I should also send out to massive thank you to members of the film photography industry, whose support of events and activities here on EMULSIVE has been critical over the past year: Ilford, Eastman Kodak, Kodak Alaris, Billingham Bags, Cinestill, Film Ferrania, Lomography, Old School Photo Lab, Beau Photo Supplies and Shoot Film Co. – to name a few.

Thank you all. Yes, even you get a thanks, Dan K 👍

 

 

Looking back to year one

This time last year I wrote:

Anyone with eyes or ears knows that the film industry has declined significantly from its heyday but as technologies and consumer focus have shifted to instantly shareable media, the net effect has been to distil the industry (and by extension, the community) into something approaching its essence – film as a creative choice, film as art, film as an expression of the people and personalities within us.

Yes, there are fewer fresh film stocks to choose from and we haven’t seen a new film camera from the likes of Nikon, Canon, or Hasselblad in what feels like decades but what is left is good.

Leica are still at it, Impossible just came out with a new instant camera, Fuji are selling Instax cameras by the case load and Lomography are creating more new lenses and camera variations than all of them combined.

In some ways, this new phase of film photography is better that the golden age because we appreciate what we have left and whatever new cameras, film and lenses are trickling their way to us – at least, we should.

One year on and I’m sorry I didn’t start earlier.

 

Whilst we are all still waiting for a new film camera from Nikon, canon or Hasselblad, year two of EMULSIVE did see the film community and industry growing in leaps and bounds.

Kodak’s announcement that they were bringing back EKTACHROME was a particularly well received shock early in 2017 but news from Ferrania about FERRANIA P30® film, Bergger’s release of Pancro 400 in 135/120 and whispers from Bellamy Hunt about JCH Streetpan 400 in 120 format were also very welcome indeed.

Every new film photography stock announced in 2017 (v6)

We saw Cinestill crowdfunding (and delivering) medium and large format motion picture film, we saw Mike Padua bring out his Photomemo notebook and it seems self-publishing zines reached a tipping point in the mainstream photographic community. All great stuff.

Speaking of the community, there was a spring in community-led projects that are looking to the future of film. You can see the beginnings of this in Juho Leppanen’s #saveanalogcameras, the results of which can be seen by all here. There’s MUCH more to come on that front, so keep your ear to the ground.

These past 12 months also saw the release of the film/digital hybrid that is the INSTAX SQ10, as well as INSTAX Mini Monochrome film – perhaps the shape of things to come? …all that that’s without mentioning countless Kickstarter campaigns bringing cameras and lenses to the market. 

Film review: Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome

I can’t wait to see what to year three brings but in short…

It’s. been. Packed.

Packed but not all been good. Fujifilm remain true to their word that they will only guarantee the production of film and related products into the early 2020’s, and have recently announced a number of discontinuations starting both this year and next (NEOPAN Acros being the deepest cut). But hey, they’re protecting their long term future and with a clinical business hat on, I can understand why they’ve been so cut throat, even though I don’t agree with how they’ve gone about it.

Doom and gloom, yes but I hope you’ll agree with me when I say that the future of film photography is looking bright, if not positively rosy.

 

 

EMULSIVE in year two

If the first year of EMULSIVE was all about photographer interviews, then year two was about community: contributions and community interviews.

I started the concept of Community Interviews close to the end of year one, with the lovely folks at Lomography helping to get the ball rolling. In year two we covered ILFORD, Kodak Alaris, Billingham and FILM Ferrania – the last two are being finalised for release as I write the this.

Helping build stronger, closer ties between the community and the industry it supports has been a big part of what keeps me going and I hope to keep on building through 2017 and 18.

In numbers over the past year, EMULSIVE has seen 64 film photographer interviews, bringing the total to 143. 224 photographs (created by yours truly), and an astounding 82 contributed articles written in seven languages from 63 authors in 27 countries.

These contributed articles are invaluable as we keep spreading the message that film photography is accessible by all and more importantly, increasing knowledge transfer across our relatively small but growing community.

A special thanks to everyone who’s stepped up to share their thoughts over the past year.

I can’t move on without a little patting of my own back and want to say that the two highlights of my own articles this year must be first, the six-part build of my AEROgraphic – a naked Graflex Speed Graphic camera and Kodak Aero Ektar lens combination. It’s probably my most rewarding project from over the past twelve months.

Building a naked Aero Ektar Speed Graphic: The AEROgraphic project part 1 – introduction and required materials

Second, would have to be the the Global Film Lab Map. It’s been a lot of fun to put together and to try to keep up with all the submissions over the past year – keep them coming!

The EMULSIVE Global Film Lab Map (v9)

Some community favourites over the past 12 months include:

https://emulsive.org/reviews/ilford-fp4-125

Shooting Kodak Tri-X 400 from EI 800 to EI 12800 (+ development times)

https://emulsive.org/interviews/i-am-dave-bias-and-this-is-why-i-shoot-film

https://emulsive.org/interviews/i-am-kristen-smith-and-this-is-why-i-shoot-film

https://emulsive.org/interviews/i-am-alex-luyckx-and-this-is-why-i-shoot-film

https://emulsive.org/interviews/i-am-monika-and-this-is-why-i-shoot-film

 

 

EMULSIVE in year three

So, where does that leave us for year three?

More of the same and more of something different, I hope. The interview queue is stacked up for at least the next five months and my plan is to continue with at least two to three new articles per week.

The film party train continues and after the success of FP4party 2016, TMAXparty 2017 and NEOPANtastic 2017, we’re fast approaching shoot week for a three month long SummerFilmParty 2017.

Welcome to #SummerFilmParty 2017, celebrating the films we shoot when the sun is shining and the days are long

There are six community interviews in the pipeline and over the coming months you’ll hopefully see the introduction of a new series of articles aimed at shining a light into the murky world of the Lab Rat.

Secret Santa will be back later this year and of course, there are the two new EMULSIVE Facebook communities: Film Photography Chat and Camera Detox – Buy / Sell / Trade. Both have gotten off to a resounding start and at least one idea discussed in the former has found wings as a result. You can look forward to hearing more about it in due course but what I’ll say for now is that it’s a community-led critique project and I couldn’t be more excited about it!

All this and much, much more to come over the next twelve months. I hope that you’ll join me on the journey, it’s going to be a blast.

As ever, keep shooting, folks!

~ EM

 

 

Share your knowledge, story or project

The transfer of knowledge across the film photography community is the heart of EMULSIVE. You can add your support by contributing your thoughts, work, experiences and ideas to inspire the hundreds of thousands of people who read these pages each month. Check out the submission guide here.

If you like what you’re reading you can also help this passion project by heading over to the EMULSIVE Patreon page and contributing as little as a dollar a month. There’s also print and apparel over at Society 6, currently showcasing over two dozen t-shirt designs and over a dozen unique photographs available for purchase.

 

 

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12 responses to “Two years of EMULSIVE – a retrospective”

  1. Already???!!!! Oh my! Happy Anniversary!

  2. Exciting times! Congratulations to EMULSIVE.

  3. Congrats on 2 years! Looking forward to what year 3 has in store!

  4. Hate that I’m so late to the game, but grateful to find you and this community out here! You’ve helped inspire me to get back into the 35mm film world and more serious about medium format images! Here’s to a fantastic year 3 and beyond! Thanks for being here!

  5. Congrats, EM! You’re a crucial voice in the world of film photography.

  6. Looking forward to more of the same and lots more different and new as well. Keep up the great work 🙂

  7. SO MUCH film goodness in just one year! Thank you for all you do, for your energy, for your inclusiveness.

  8. Thank you for everything

  9. I just posted a pic of the exact same wall in Hong Kong, shot with @CineStillFilm 50D:… https://t.co/HbB36WCHP3

 

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