We suggested a couple weeks ago that you start collecting things via photos if your idea tank is running dry and you’re in need of a project. A neat photography-related item you can try collecting is 35mm film canisters — it’s kind of like collecting wine corks, though getting the film processed usually results in having the canisters tossed. The photo above shows Flickr user Wee Sen Goh‘s colorful collection.
Claire Chauvin over at Poopscape has a fun project for those of you who have useless 35mm negatives that are lying around and waiting to be tossed. All you need is a cheap and simple lamp (Chauvin used a $7 Ikea Grönö lamp) and some glue (e.g. Mod Podge). Carefully glue the strips onto the lamp and you’ll have yourself a unique, personalized lamp that’ll liven up any room in your house!
Grönö Lamp Hack (via Lifehacker)
Tiffany Threadgould of RePlayGround had the awesome idea of building a room divider using old 35mm film canisters. She spent three months befriending film processing shops in New York and collecting the 1,000+ canisters needed for the project.
Read more…
Julie Lewis saves the 35mm film of Hollywood movies from destruction after they’re done running in theaters by upcycling them into unique handbags and wallets. The 100% polyester films are sometimes from a mix of different movies, or sometimes from the same popular film (e.g. “Twilight”).
Read more…
Earlier this month Kodak announced their new Portra 400 color negative film, replacing the Portra 400NC and 400VC professional films. This might seem like backwards thinking, since so many films have been discontinued as of late, but Kodak believes film is making a comeback. In an interview with the British Journal of Photography, Kodak’s US marketing manager Scott DiSabato states,
We won’t make a product like this if we don’t believe we’ll see a return on it. Luckily the colour negative film sales have been very stable over the past year. Black-and-white is also doing extremely well. It almost feel that there is a very real resurgence for film.
A lifeline for film seems to be college campuses, where many young people are introduced to 35mm film photography for the first time (like I was):
[...] the most exciting thing is to see the younger people adopt film. It’s almost a generational thing. They have not shot film growing up, but once they do get a hold of film in a university, they just seem to fall in love with it. And that’s exciting. It just seems to have a lot of influence.
You can read the entire interview here. What are your thoughts on the future of film photography?
(via Wired)
