When my twin sister and I were little girls in the 1970s, one of our favorite things to do was to get out boxes of printed film pictures at Grandpa's and Grandma's house and look through them, talking about the people and imagining their lives and places they were in the images we held in our hands. We also spent hours looking through magazines that would come in the mailbox - we loved to read, but we also were interested in the editorial and advertising pictures we saw in those pages.
And now, as a professional digital photographer, there is still so much nostalgia for me in film pictures. The natural, imperfect moments and places captured on film is something beautiful and precious that is hard to capture today. Now, with Photoshop, retouching software, AI, and people's obsession with being and looking perfect, the authentic moments captures back in the film days is lost.
Film and film cameras are still out there, of course, but the cost of locating vintage film, or even newly made film, getting it developed and scanned, is just a nuisance I don't want to deal with. But I do sometimes like to try to recreate the look and moments captured on film when I shoot for myself. Digital images made to look like film; and modern places and people made to look like those in the past, is something I am not perfect at re-creating. But I love trying, and hope that my "retro film emulation" images at least echo the past that I feel so nostalgic for.
Last summer I rented a fantastic Mid Century home for a photoshoot; recruited two amazing girls to be my models, and had the best time creating. I think the little girl I was in the 1970s would have liked these.