Analog photography

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Analog photography, also known as film photography, is a term usually applied to photography that uses chemical processes to capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography, which uses electronic sensors to record images to digital media. Analog electronic photography was sometimes used in the late 20th century but soon died out.

Film cameras use photographic emulsions, light falling upon silver halides is recorded as a latent image, which is then subjected to photographic processing, making it visible and insensitive to light.

Contrary to the belief that digital photography gave a death blow to film, analog photography not only survived, but actually expanded across the globe.^[1] With the renewed interest in traditional photography, new organizations (like Film Is Not Dead, Lomography) were established and new lines of products helped to perpetuate analog photography. In 2017, B&H Photo & Video, an e-commerce site for photographic equipment, stated that film sales were increasing by 5% each year in the recent past.^[2] The Japan Times claimed that though film photography is a "dying art", Japan could be at the starting point of a movement led by young photographers to keep film alive.^[3] Firstpost claimed that a vast majority of photographers are slowly coming back to film.^[4]