A week or two back now I attended the 20th birthday party of a friend. It was a quiet affair, a dozen or so of us relaxing on couches on the back lawn of a flat, soaking up the sun of a burgeoning summer.
On the table, amongst the cake and bottles, was something which I didn't even know was still around- a disposable camera, one which shoots film. You know the ones, black with orange and red on them. Click, wind-wind-wind. Wait to get the photos developed and then be gutted about how many of them didn't come out.
I'd known for a while that film cameras were making a comeback. Social media has gradually become more densely littered with the tell-tale colour streaks and over/under exposure that techies have devoted their careers and lives to getting rid of for the last few decades.
So the disposable camera captured our afternoon and early evening in the sun in 27 shots, and it was a lot of fun, far more than taking photos on any of our dozen perfectly capable phones would have been.
I'm not so sure why film cameras have made such a reappearance of late. The first answer that springs to mind would have to be that their lower quality and skewed colours have this fantastic ability to seemingly Photoshop out all of your flaws, flattering your ego greatly in the process. In a social media age, we all look a bit better in low definition, rather than the super ultra clear photos captured by the super ultra clear camera which scientists have crammed into your latest phone.
