Analog

Editor's note: This short film contains some explicit language and images.

Watching photographer and filmmaker Tyrone Lebon's short film Reely and Truly is, at times, a jarring experience. One moment you're talking about fashion photography, the next you're exploring New York City's underbelly.

But that is exactly the experience Lebon intended to create as he explores with you the breadth of photography today in a film that is as much an ode to the art of photography as it is a piece of photographic art itself.

Many of you have already no-doubt heard of Keira Knightley's recent photoshoot and interview with Interview Magazine [Warning: NSFW], in which she posed topless on the condition they wouldn't Photoshop her body before publishing the final shot.

As Bill Cosby can attest, Kids Say the Darndest Things. To see what kids would say when given a piece of technology from a bit before their time, TheFineBros YouTube channel handed a handful of kids a 35mm film point-and-shoot camera and started recording.

The results are... well... you judge for yourself.

London-based artist Nick Gentry is known for using interesting materials to make his photographic work, and his newest series Synthetic Daydreams is no exception. For Synthetic Daydream, Gentry decided to paint realistic portraits on used, discarded film negatives.

The Impossible Project CEO Creed O’Hanlon dropped quite the statement and statistic in an article on the resurgence of Polaroids by The Guardian.

"Teens," O'Hanlon said, "[are] turning their backs on digital for something more tangible." A fact he says is backed up by explosive growth in their sales to the 18-25 year old demographic.

In an effort to prove to myself, my family, and my friends that I am not nuts to lug 6+ pounds of medium format camera gear up the mountainside I conducted my own tests over the last few weeks.

Sure one could set up a Resolution Target but that would not be a “real world” test, no sweat and sore muscles.

In their ongoing effort to keep film fun and interesting, Lomography has announced the new Lomography LomoChrome Turquoise XR 100–400 film stock. Designed to be developed in the standard C–41 process, the film stock will come in both 35mm and 120 varieties, with an initial batch of 5,000 being prepared for pre-order.

Inspired by Steve McCurry’s “The Last Roll of Kodachrome,” four Tokyo-based photographers took to the streets with only a single roll of 120 film and a Hasselblad to capture what it would be like to shoot the very last roll of film in existence.

To pay homage to the return of beloved instant film, Mercedes-Benz has created a four and a half minute mini-documentary that takes an inside look at the inspiration behind bringing it back, the machinery used to make it, and even a look at how the analogue sorcery works.

There are only four places left in the world that are capable of producing color film for both cinema and photography, and one of those is asking for your help to properly rise from the ashes and help secure "100 more years of analog film."

Online content studio Rubber Republic recently created something called #PictureBelfast, a photography-based viral campaign designed to showcase their city on behalf of Tourism Ireland.

But this isn't just a set of pretty pictures -- it's an interactive challenge that wants to see if you can tell the difference between a film photograph, and a filtered wannabe taken with a smartphone.

Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to shoot film as a photojournalist today? Well, now you have your answer. In the video above, The Camera Store challenged Calgary Sun photojournalist Mike Drew to see if it was even remotely possible to shoot a day's worth of assignments with only film anymore.

Film is making something of a comeback. Sure, certain film stocks are still disappearing and being discontinued, but other companies are coming back from the dead, new companies are releasing new and exciting film, and now, Epson just decided to update two 8-year-old multi-format film scanners by releasing two new models.

South Korea-based artist Seung-Hwan Oh creates some truly unusual portraits by unleashing little microbes and letting them eat away at his medium for months or even years. The project is called Impermanence, and it's a series of microbe-mauled portraits that hardly resemble what they were originally captured as.

Here's a new reason you might want to consider picking up a Google Glass if you're a photographer: it can be used as a light meter.

A new app called Google Glass Light Meter is trying to pioneer a new way of metering light -- with a device strapped to your face instead of held in your hand.

Ollie Baker, the 18-year-old tinkerer who made headlines when he turned an old Konica rangefinder into a digital camera using a Sony NEX-5 sensor, is back at it with a Kickstarter project that's even more exciting: he wants to turn your Leica M3 into a digital camera by packing the full-frame sensor from the Sony a7 inside!

This video is a "then-and-now" comparison showing the Dutch city of Alkmaar in 1914 and in 2014. It was created by Dutch photographer Frits de Beer, Tara Rikkers and Michael de Vreugd, Alkmaar natives who wanted to see how his city had changed over the past 100 years.

If removing the LCD from a digital rangefinder just isn't retro enough for you, Leica has something that even the most adamant of purists won't be able to dog. Dubbed the Leica M-A (Typ 127), this all-new film rangefinder is 100% mechanical: no built-in light meter, no electronic control, this beauty doesn't even take batteries.

Bad things happen when you don’t source your photos properly, and a Thailand-based textbook company has learned that lesson the hard way. 2,000 textbooks are currently being recalled after it was revealed that one of the ‘teachers’ pictured on the front of the textbook is actually an adult film star.

Film photographers are used to options slowly fading away, but today we have news of the opposite variety: a film company making a dramatic return to the game. Originally announced via blog post in July of last year, Italian film company FILM Ferrania is finally preparing to start making film again in mid-September.

We’ve shared some pretty awesome DIY cameras with you in the past, and today we've run across one of the most impressive to date.

A 6x17 panorama film camera, it was hand-built out of wood and 18-gauge steel by Instructables user mattthegamer463. And you're welcome to build one yourself or just stare wide-eyed at his.

Kodak recently issued an official statement confirming the discontinuation of yet another film stock: the much-loved, fine grain, chromogenic black & white film BW400CN.

Artist Tom Leveritt recently ventured out into the world of ultraviolet photography -- or more specifically videography -- to help us take a closer look at the skin we’re in and how sunscreen is a vital tool towards protecting it.

The latter years of the first decade of the 20th century were by no means glorious ones for The Polaroid Corporation. Filing for bankruptcy multiple times, the company ultimately decided to kill off its instant camera business in 2007, with the death of their instant film coming not long after in 2008. And while the demise of Polaroid’s instant film era is a sad one, it went out strong.

Thankfully, first-time filmmaker Grant Hamilton was there to capture the last year of Polaroid’s existence as we will almost always know it. Broken up into three acts, Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film tells the story of Polaroid’s last year through the eyes of the artists who shot the film, the dying days of instant film production and the idea and start of what was rightly deemed The Impossible Project.

Johnny Joo is a name you might recognize. Not too long ago we featured a series of images Joo captured at a ‘train graveyard’ hidden in the forests of North Carolina. This time, we’re back with some more recent urbex work of his that takes us into the ruins of an abandoned film school that was chock full of items that are doubly interesting to us as photographers.

Just last week we shared the news that a number of top filmmakers were helping to save Kodak motion picture film, pushing through a deal between the noted film manufacturer and studios.

While initial reports stated Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Judd Apatow and J.J. Abrams are all dropping some names and heartfelt thoughts on the matter, a letter to Kodak from iconic director Martin Scorsese recently poured some serious gasoline on the film-love fire.

In terms of marketshare, it’s rather obvious digital photography has the upper hand. Whether it’s convenience or other reasons, digital seems to make sense for many for its flexibility across the board. But, despite vast advantages of a digital workflow, there are those still dedicated to analogue photography.

In an attempt to understand why it is some photographers are dedicated to film, wedding photographer and filmmaker Amrit Vatsa took a look into the art form that is analogue photography.

One of the last vestiges of the Kodak of old, the one part of its film division not sold off in 2012, is the company's motion picture film business. But even that is in trouble, and might be taking its dying breaths right now if it wasn't for some of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers coming to the rescue.

Most of us baby our film, making sure it's kept at the right temperature so that it produces the best possible photos when we finally do use it. Photographer Brigette Bloom takes a different approach: she pees on hers... seriously.

For her series Float On, the Hawaii-based photog produced ethereal imagery by soaking the film in a cup of her own pee before she ever went out to shoot it.

If you’ve ever been interested in developing your own film, but don’t know where to get started, this comprehensive video by YouTube user Photography_Bloke might be just the resource you’ve been looking for.

Raymundo Panduro of Pixel Análogo recently created the camera above, which he calls the "Pinolga". It's a realistic pinhole Holga medium format camera made out of cardboard that can take pretty impressive photographs.

Lomography released yet another unique type of film emulsion. Or rather, it’s managed to repackage an existing emulsion, converting it for use in 35mm cameras.

If you're a photo lover and you happen to be getting married to another photo lover, you're going to (at the risk of sounding repetitive) love this little DIY project that photog couple Katie and Kyle put together for their wedding.

Rather than sending out typical wedding invites to all of the friends and family they wanted to join them on their special day, they decided to make these super creative invites using rolls of 35mm film instead!

In the world of analogue photography, the larger you go in format, the more time, discipline and resources it typically takes to capture and develop your photographs. And while the age-old technique of developing film takes due diligence no matter the format, large format photography in particular has a certain quality to the process that makes it stand out from the rest.

Digital cameras naturally present us with a number of advantages, among them the oft-overlooked inclusion of detailed information about how (and often where) the photographs we captured, otherwise known as metadata.

Analog shooters don’t have this luxury. We usually resort to either forgoing it completely, scratching down notes with whatever pen and paper we have handy, or utilizing an application created for this purpose. That's where a new notebook designed by Ilott Vintage comes in.

It was almost a year ago to the date that we featured the work of photographer Matther Cetta. In a series titled Photogenic Alchemy, he took rolls of film he had photographed with his toy camera and developed them in a number of strange ingredients -- from Drano to Pepto Bismol.

Earlier this year, renowned Cape Town photography store Orms developed their last roll of slide film through the E6 process. To bring the era of a legendary process to a proper close, Hero AV brought together a short documentary depicting three photographers who were asked to shoot the last of the slide film that would be developed at the lab.

While most of the outdoor winter sports photography you see is as clean and crisp as the snow itself, photographer Matt Georges goes for a more moody feeling while out on the slopes. His work with the Polaroid, Holga, and medium format film creates a unique look at the life of the thrill seekers out there.

Although not a formally trained photographer, Matt has been in the photo world most of his adult life, photo-editing for ski magazines, and working his way up to senior in-house photographer. Read on to hear about his technique using these films, his background, and more.

TIME’s Behind the Picture recently dove into the fascinating story behind how some of the most iconic photographs of World War II almost never were. Narrated by John Morris, Editor of LIFE magazine during WWII, Morris tells the story behind the photographs captured by Robert Capa on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.

Today, Google has officially announced Analog Efex Pro II, the latest update to its Nik Collection line-up. Striving to “pay homage to the classical, vintage, and alternative processing techniques that photographers used so many years ago,” this update includes a plethora of new features and fixes, further refining the program and taking it to the next level.

As Instagram goes to show, people love to give their mobile photos that extra bit of pop, to make them stand out from the rest and give them an aesthetic true to photography past. To do so, they rely on various applications, most notably VSCO Cam, which claims to be the “standard” among mobile photography applications. However, as of today, there’s a new contender: Litely.

What do Polaroids and Hot Pockets have in common? 99.9% of the time nothing. But, thanks to Berlin-based fashion and portrait photographer, Oliver Blohm, there’s that .1% remaining. To create that .1%, he has literally developed a way in which to combine Polaroid film with a microwave to create some very... unique photographs.

Oleg Oprisco is a photographer based in Ukraine whose magical, dreamlike photographs have been shared far and wide on the Internet. In an age where realistic photo manipulations are the secret sauce behind impossible images, Oprisco's work stands out for one simple mind-blowing fact: they aren't artificial digital manipulations.

As part of The Invisible Photograph documentary series being put together by Carnegie Museum of Art, the short film Underground takes a look inside one of the largest photo collections on the face of the Earth.

Two months after being in Sochi to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics, photographer Guy Rhodes is sharing some of the images he captured there. But they’re not just any images. They’re analog images. 4x5 images, to be exact.

Using 34 sheets of Tri-X and a Crown Graphic 4x5 camera, Rhodes describes capturing the games with such a beast (while also shooting digital) as, "among the top experiences [in his] life."

Created by Netherland-based director and animator Andre Maat, this incredible little stop-motion animated film, dubbed WOODOO, was created with the help of a whole lot of laser-cut wood pieces.

An incredible short film series is coming to life thanks to the production prowess of Helio Collective and iconic camera brand Leica. Called "Let Us Roam," the series tells the stories of photographers, artist, filmmakers and musicians, all within the subculture of skateboarding.

For those of you who, like me, enjoy shooting film on occasion but keep a predominately digital workflow, German company Reflecta has a new 35mm film scanner on the way that will blow away almost any other consumer-level scanner you're going to find.

Noticing the successful efforts of both Lomography and The Impossible Project, inventor Bob Crowley has been inspired to take his own dive into the niche market of the re-creation of discontinued analog films. He and his team at New55 FILM have created a Kickstarter in hopes of funding the start up of 4x5 instant film production.

After his first successful Kickstarter, Jerome Daksiewicz is back at it again. This time around he's working to create a neat collection of screen-printed posters based on the boxes and containers of film stocks past and present.