On my last trip to Belgium in December 2019, I discovered my mom still had her old Canon 35mm camera. Most of my childhood memories were recorded with this little machine. I have many fond memories of going through the newly developed photos together with my mother. She was not planning to use it again any time soon, so I thought I’d give it a go at being its proud new owner. And as more than often happens with new found hobbies, they end up in the back of a drawer, to be rediscovered once more at a later time.
Finally, after gathering dust for many months (not really because I’m a a cleaning maniac), I decided to give film photography a try. Already I found these two words really daunting: film photography. It’s like proclaiming to be an expert at something, when in reality I had to ask Google-sensei “how to put film in a film camera”. Film photography is now cool and vintage, whereas this just used to be normal. I have a few friends who take photos on film as a hobby or career, and they are really good at it, to say the least. Their photos are beautiful, artistic yet candid, and they even know how to use a dark room. I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level, but I just think it’s fun to try. I live for nostalgia, for that moment when the envelope with freshly printed photos touches my hands. I love knowing that every photo counts, that I will not be scrolling through the hundreds of nearly similar shots on a phone screen. I don’t proclaim these photos to be anything extraordinary, but they are one moment captured on a piece of ribbon, and that moment will forever be mine.
These photos were taken in Shibuya, Harajuku, Shimokitazawa and Jimbocho.
Hannatopia 