Photographers are returning to film in droves. To serve them as they go 'back to the future,' 120processing.com is bringing the old-school local photo lab to the Internet, offering developing of medium-format/120 film by mail.
Believe it or not, photographers are returning to film in large numbers, and an enterprising photo lab is serving them by combining their experience in traditional film photography with the networking and sharing powers of the Internet.
Recent months have seen a movement to revive film. People frustrated with the impersonality and blandness of digital images have remembered what drew them to photography in the first place: personal control of expression and quality. Unfortunately many local photo labs have been driven out of business, so photographers are turning to the Internet for their processing needs. One of the few surviving independent labs, Photosmith Imaging in Dover, NH, has begun http://www.120processing.com, a website offering film developing by mail to Internet customers.
“It’s the best of the old and of the new. For years we were a Main Street business. I knew what each of our customers wanted—whether they preferred 3x5 or 4x6, matte or glossy,” says Steve Frank, who has owned Photosmith Imaging for thirty years. “Now we are offering that same personalized service on a broader scale. And since the Internet lets us take our business nation-wide, we’re able to offer very competitive prices for film processing. We are small in size, but more experienced than most. We cater to people on a personal basis, the same as if you come in to our brick-and-mortar operation.”
http://www.120processing.com will also use the Internet to recreate a community of people interested in photography—what the Main Street photo lab used to be. The website has a facebook page, where photographers can meet each other and share images, as well as a monthly contest with a prize of free processing.
Over the last several years digital photography revolutionized the genre—people captured thousands of images, deleted most of them immediately after taking them, and edited out imperfections. Photographers lost images when their hard drive crashed or when their online image warehouses folded. Customer Mark Stevens appreciates the careful craft of film photography. “I'll never stop shooting film,” he says. “I love the process. It forces me to slow down and study the composition and light in each frame. I find it very relaxing to get back to the basics of photography, and it’s great to have www.120processing.com to do the developing.”
Retro? Owner Steve Frank doesn’t think so. “This has been our way of doing business -1391552839 and making images for decades. We are trying to find customers who want and appreciate the same things.”
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