The film revival
2010s onward
After digital nearly killed it, film came back: new instant film, reissued slide films, new film cameras, and a generation of photographers born after film went out.
How it began
Film sales collapsed in the 2000s, and many products disappeared: Polaroid stopped instant film in 2008 and Kodachrome ended in 2009. Small companies such as the Impossible Project and Lomography, and the rescued Ilford business, kept making film for a dedicated audience, which began to grow in the 2010s.
How it works
The chemistry is unchanged, but the economics are new: smaller batches, reopened coating lines and second-hand cameras. Many young photographers shoot film for its grain and colour, for the slower way of working, and for having a negative.
Why it mattered
It showed that an older technology could survive alongside its replacement for reasons of taste rather than performance. Kodak brought back Ektachrome, Harman launched a new colour film, and in 2024 Ricoh released the Pentax 17, its first new film camera in over twenty years.
Limits and what replaced it
Film and processing are now expensive and labs are scarce. Most people still photograph with phones; film is a choice, not the norm.
Today
Film is a niche, but a growing one: makers have reopened lines and launched new stocks and cameras.