I was thinking about my trip to New York just before the bottom fell out.  I had gone on business but made time to visit the outstanding Dorothea Lange exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.  I wrote about it a little while back, but now it seems so long ago. At the time we were just talking about Covid-19, and not really doing anything about it.  The trains were packed and so were the streets and restaurants. It was a different time.

One of the things that struck me as I walked to my destinations was how many young film photographers were out and about making photographs with film. I didn’t bring a camera with me this time as the schedule was pretty compressed, but now I wished I had. The good news is that I was able to stop and chat with a few folks. Tim and the others I spoke with were truly committed to the black and white analog experience. They were all 35mm shooters, but that’s not surprising given the environment; they were using Leica rangefinders and small older SLRs like the Pentax.

What is surprising is that during my limited excursion I didn’t see one digital camera being used on the street. Not one! Warmed my heart. Now I know this is a very small sampling and most likely was an anomaly.  Still it was very encouraging and reinforced what I have heard about young people’s interest in film for all the right reasons we know.

Film will never be cheap again and neither will paper. Digital is just too convenient for most and that’s the problem. But we know that in the case of film, and especially black and white film, convenient just isn’t better.

Hey Tim, thanks for helping to keep film alive. Keep on doing what you’re doing and I hope you stay safe!