The Nostalgia of Film

What is a memory?

Is it a feeling? A taste, a smell? A little private movie maybe, exclusively for you and your brain only, a sold-out show?

I’ve heard it said that photographs are the physical manifestation of memories. A snapshot of a scene frozen in time, immortalised. A picture can hold so much meaning, a personal connection to the past, just like a memory, acting on the emotional centres of the brain. Nostalgia is a very particular emotion, hard to pin down, but so painfully relatable, and some of the best photography manipulates nostalgia to create a wistful longing for the past. However, bending nostalgia to your will isn’t such an easy task, and the fact that film photography is so often successful in this pursuit has prompted a fondness for film that has spread like wildfire amongst our youth.

The first children to mature alongside smartphones – i.e. us – have grown accustomed to snapping thousands of digital photos without second thought. As a result, the vast quantity of images that we experience every day has cheapened the value of each photo. Think about how many pictures you took today without even thinking about it: snaps sent to friends, posts on stories, the like. Nine times out of ten, a picture taken on a phone doesn’t feel special anymore; it doesn’t feel exciting.

There’s something sacred about film, something romantic about the peril of exposing a frame without knowing how it will turn out. It’s thrilling, it’s different, and it recalls a lost time before the digital era, a time that our generation – tragically – can never access first-hand. But this loss makes the unique aura of film photography all the more heart-wrenchingly enticing. A bittersweet yearning for days gone by: or in other words, nostalgia.

Words & photos by Luca Burgess (@eggfriedshots)