In 2022, Lucia Rollow, the Founder of the Bushwick Community Darkroom in New York, saw film and chemistry prices rise by 100 to 200 percent. But the outsized demand for film, while frustrating, has had an unexpected effect: “There are a bunch of small batch new films being released, and some of them are really cool,” Rollow says.
“The supply chain challenges caused by the pandemic made film harder and more expensive to actually get, so I think that pushed a certain type of nerd to actually move forward on the fantasy of creating their own film stock. I’ve had a lot of these conversations. People are getting creative in a way they really haven’t needed to before.”
The film photography community is a resourceful one. More than a decade ago, when Polaroid stopped producing film, people worried it was the end of an era. Then the release of Polaroid Originals proved them wrong. Years later, in the fall of 2022, Leica released a new model of the M6. Pentax has announced a new line of film cameras as well.
With the “film renaissance” in full swing, we felt it was high time to release a guide to film resources for newbies and connoisseurs alike. This guide is divided into eight categories: Darkrooms & Education, Shops, Labs, Websites, Podcasts, Clubs, and Chemistry & other fun stuff.