About five months ago the Cameraventures team launched the #saveanalogcameras project to see if analogue photography is still alive among photographers and therefore understand their future.
During the data collection process, about 170 Portuguese photographers who still photograph with analog cameras were interviewed.
Analogue photography in Portugal is young and growing, since it is more popular among people aged between 21 and 26 years, and to the younger age group, between ages 16 to 20 years old. Users between 35 and 45 years old also fill a large proportion of the results collected, the generation who used analog photography in their teenage and young adult years, witnessed the transition to digital, and nowadays are perfectly aware of the digital universe in photography and what it has to offer but still use the analog process.
To the group of participants was raised the question of where they would position themselves among 4 types of users of analog photography, they are Artist, Collector, Gearhead and Newcomer (each type is described and can be consulted on our website via the link – https://camerarescue.org/help/). The results show that although all 4 types are quite close to each other in terms of percentage the Artist archetype is the most represented here, with exactly 33.8%.
The process of collecting analog cameras also becomes increasingly important, since it is from there that services are developed and meet certain needs. Within the group of participants almost 40% have between 3 and 5 cameras, yet there are many who have a huge amount of gear, which has led to the appearance of an increasingly recurrent phenomenon in Portugal: stores are selling old cameras and consequent material and repair services are included as well.
This fact can be very relevant in that the cameras are in fact used as a functional object, and not only as a decorative object, obsolete in its photographic function, which leads to the development of a network of analog market, giving new life to the cameras.
Author: Diogo Santos