A resurgence of trends from the early 2000s has spread to the digital world with the comeback of digital cameras. Teenagers have substituted taking pictures with their cell phones to capturing their memories with digital cameras.
The prominence of digital cameras is evident in the Greenhill community, specifically among the many students who have created social media accounts solely dedicated to photos taken on digital cameras.
Some students are purchasing new digital cameras, while others have repurposed their parents’ old cameras.
One student known for starting the digital account trend is freshman Lylah Pouratian.
“I started using my digital camera at the beginning of summer when I found some in my dad’s closet, he had a bunch of them from around 2010,” Pouratian said. “I just thought there could be a more interesting way to take pictures than with my phone.”
Pouratian runs a digital camera account on Instagram that captures more than just pictures of herself and focuses more on taking pictures for everyone to have and enjoy.
“I think it’s different than everyone’s normal accounts because it’s not just pictures of me, it’s pictures of other people and my friends to see what our life is like,” Pouratian said. “It’s kind of a way of romanticizing my life.”
Many students say they prefer to take pictures with these cameras as they feel it is more aesthetically pleasing and gives off a different quality than a cell phone does.
“I like the pictures more than regular photos because it gives a vintage and 90s feel to the photos,” sophomore Kacy Johnson said. “When I scroll on Pinterest, I have started seeing a lot of people using digital cameras and I thought it looked cool.”
The mass trend of digital cameras on social media has given Upper School students a new outlook on photography.
“The digital camera makes the quality of the photos seem more imperfect and aesthetically pleasing,” freshman Briana Solomon said. “People would rather take photos on digital cameras because they are more fun than phones are.”
Additionally, students say using these digital cameras brings people together and encourages people from different groups to mix and socialize.
Now, many students say they feel they cannot go anywhere without their digital cameras.
“When I hang out with my friends, they always tell me to bring my camera,” Johnson said.
Upper School visual arts teacher Frank Lopez has also recognized the comeback of this form of photography as well.
“We are now seeing more of a morphing of digital and analog techniques, there is a big resurgence in darkroom work, and there is a big resurgence in 19th and 20th-century technologies,” Lopez said.
Lopez is integrating photography technology with new ideas, which excites his students and connects with them well.
“The way that Greenhill photography is working is we are interacting with the techniques and with ideas and that’s what makes it exciting right now,” Lopez said. “Students are really enjoying melding 19th, 20th and 21st [century] technology.”
