The return of film photography and perhaps the decline of influencers
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
The market for film photography is projected to reach nearly $5 billion by 2025. The "Camp Snap" camera, screenless and inspired by film photography, has sold over a million units. Companies are anticipating this shift. A segment of young people is turning away from traditional smartphone uses, despite the increasing image quality.
Generation Z (born between 2000 and 2010) is beginning to adopt screenless cameras and rediscover film, in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This movement is part of social media fatigue, the quest for authenticity and slow media, as well as a return to analog ( analog revival ).
For the past twenty years, social media has transformed the image into a tool for self-promotion. Photography is no longer simply about capturing a moment, but about producing a version of oneself in comparison to others. This performative image must be seen, validated, and compared, with demands akin to those of audiovisual professionals. The ego is constantly engaged, and sharing loses its logic of lived experience.
With screenless cameras and film photography, there is no instant control, no retouching, and no immediate publication. The image regains its uncertain, delayed, imperfect character, freed from this pressure, like the photo albums of yesteryear.
This situation can also be extended to online video on social networks. The dominant formats (Reels, Shorts) focus heavily on the individual in a selfie talking, mixing self-exposure, influence and reaction, and perpetuate a logic of short, self-centered and above all repetitive content for more than 15 years now.
Recent criticism and litigation in the United States targeting platforms like Meta, accused of spreading videos harmful to young people's mental health, highlight the limitations of this model. Several court decisions and ongoing legal proceedings support users.
The success of analog formats in photography signals an expectation that could also translate into a growing separation between the object of capture (the camera) and the object of dissemination (the phone screen), a trajectory particularly favorable to fiction professionals.
A vast opportunity is also opening up for professional fiction adapted to phone screens. Formats that reintroduce narrative will restore the image of social networks. The user once again becomes a spectator of a story, remotely and without needing to represent themselves. It's a way to escape a space where the ego is constantly engaged.
Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge
