What Goes Around Comes Around - The Return of Instant/Film Photography

During my sophomore year of high school, my best friends surprised me with a Polaroid camera (well, technically a Fujifilm Instax) for my birthday. The cameras became a commonplace gift that year, with all of us snapping photos to cover our walls, share as momentos, and even proceed to take photos of on our iPhone cameras to then post on social media.

Since coming to college, I've purchased disposable cameras to carry around at gatherings with friends, despite the price associated with getting them developed. I've even purchased film from the Impossible Project for a camera my grandparents owned in the '70s.

And I'm not the only one - the resurgence of Polaroid and disposable cameras is still on the rise; this article even shows a recent artist exhibit of blown up Polaroid cameras. To me, this trend prompts questions of what draws us to this sense of nostalgia (even for many of us, who weren't even alive in the original age of Polaroid cameras and only photography experience involves an iPhone camera).  Does the popularity of Polaroids and disposables signal a desire to slow down and memorialize moments, as a sort of backlash against the rapidity and ease of today's digital camera? Or is it just another way to look cool on social media (by posting digital copies of these more tangible photographs)?

Above Image: my own, via a Fujifilm QuickSnap.