We Do Film

It was my last day from a two weeks business trip that brought me from a small dot on the map in Eastern Europe to Grand Rapids Michigan and finally - Chicago. It was a Sunday morning and with some hours to spare on the return flight back to my base town. Weather changes quickly in Chicago, and from a sunny Saturday, here I was, roaming the streets, early in the morning, soaked in thin rain, guided by the maps app on the phone in a radius that kept me in a safe zone close to my hotel.

I walked along Marina towers on the bridge across the river and stopped for a second to snap a picture of the towers and the skyscrapers designed by the followers of Mies van der Rohe. Trump Tower was slowly covered in fog and I snapped another shot from my #Canon3000V - let's call it a traveling camera and my last roll of #KodakColorPlus.

Went further on State Street, passed #ChicagoTheatre and something caught my attention and took a left turn on Madison, made a right and I followed the underground train tracks on Wabash Avenue until I came across this store -Chicago's most complete photographic studio since 1899.

I got closer to the window store, feeling just like a little kid approaching a toy shop, trying to figure out what are all the wonderful things inside. I stayed there, almost still, for 5 minutes feeding this warm feeling - it felt like a deja-vu, a throwback to my childhood days.

The We Do Film sign made me smile.

Back then, shooting film was something that I impose myself to do every month - at least one roll. It was not easy to get it developed in my base town, was even harder to get it digitilized, but we were a handful of enthusiasts - a small group of dissidents - who preferred to roam the streets with an old analog camera rather than the latest digital one.

We would hunt antique stores and flea markets for lenses and cameras and after a big find and the mandatory show and tell, the newly discovered piece was tested, used, and enjoyed by a few among the group lucky to have a compatible system.

Discovering this store was like a direct confirmation that this group of self-called misfits in the world of photography, was on to something. I still feel that whenever I'm using a film camera, I'm connected better from a creative perspective to the whole creative process.

It was windy (pun intended) and rainy as I turned back to my hotel and got ready for the flight back. I'm grateful for all the experiences I had during this first business trip in the US, for all things that I learned, and for the creative connections, I made with my colleagues.

Still, discovering this store felt like the cherry on top of the cake, especially when it happened in the last moments of that trip.

Luckily I was back in Chicago one year later and made a dream happen. I walked in, and it felt like the promised land. I was again that little kid, surrounded by all those marvelous photographic things. I choose to buy a pack of unopened #Polaroid600 Instant Black and White film for my #MamyiaRZ67. It has a special meaning - the film was manufactured in the US, in 1982, the same year as the Mamiya and the same year as me.

This throwback would not have been possible without being part of #Steelcase but this is for you #CentralCameraCo #Chicago.

Some photos from this article were converted to black and white and the last one is a digital snapshot that I should print and hang somewhere.

#canonphotography #filmphotography #analogphotography #discoverytrip