Ever since the latter part of my high school days, I’ve been interested in film photography. I played around with it fleetingly for some time but became more serious in learning about it and collecting cameras in the last year or so.

Genetics may have been a partial influencing factor for my hobby since my Ông Ngoại – maternal grandfather was a photographer. The other factors are harder to articulate. I like how meticulous you have to be with each shot, adjusting the focus and exposure. There’s also a weird joy in the anticipation that could take days, weeks, or months leading to actually seeing how the shot turns out. It’s the patience that keeps you on your feet, wanting to practice more and more so that every shot can be a sure-shot. Though no matter how much practice you have, the way each photo turns out still surprises you one way or another. That is the beauty of film that I’m infatuated with.

To me, film can also capture feelings. Something about the inability to modify the photos in any way makes the instances even more precious. The waiting period of developing film plays into this by making you almost forget what you exactly took a picture of. Then, after receiving your scans, you’re kind of wondering and tracing back to the hows or whys you took that shot. The impermanence of that very moment in time that’s been forever seized in a single frame really does take you through a brief ride down memory lane. You can re-feel the happiness that day, along with some recollection of details about things you didn’t expect yourself to remember.

Film has the power to evoke nostalgia. Most, if not all of us grew up with an analog camera. We might not have been the ones to take the photos, but we were in them, probably doing some stupid shit that went unremembered for years to come. But there’s this one day when we flip through an old album with grainy pictures and have a chance to look back at them. We’re suddenly reminded of a much simpler time in our lives. Viewing film photos of my grandparents and parents in the prime of their youth, I still feel nostalgic even though they belong to a time I never got to experience. Through the film photos that I take, I also hope to bring nostalgia to those who look at it, regardless if the reminiscence is only for an event that happened yesterday.

I’m still very much an amateur photographer. To begin this journey, I actually started taking photos without really learning the proper techniques, only researching them after making several mistakes. I’ve always learned better through mistakes anyways, and film is no exception. Even so, I’m proud to say that I’ve gotten a better hang of focusing and maneuvering the aperture.

I do hope that my Ông Ngoại, who I think of every time I pick up a camera, is smiling big up there somewhere, knowing that I am honoring his legacy.