Capturing moments with intentionality, through a vintage lens
By IQRA AHMAD — arts@theaggie.org
What’s in your bag? Click. Shutter. Flash. Snap. No, it’s not 2007, but it sure does look like it. In the age of Y2K revival and internet nostalgia, digital cameras are everywhere. Whether thrifted from resellers or dug out of a forgotten coat closet, your parents’ point-and-shoot has officially graduated from a junk drawer item to an accessory. Why does everyone seem to have a digicam? And what, exactly, is behind this retro comeback?
For many, it’s about chasing a feeling.
“It looks like memories, because it’s blurry and imperfect,” Katie Glasgow, a 25-year-old from New York, said in a BBC article. “It looks more like how we remember things.”
In a world where smartphones and filters ensure every photo is polished and curated, digital cameras bring back the magic of selectivity. Instead of instantaneous shooting, digital cameras allow you to decide which moments are worth capturing.
“Those images make us feel nostalgic, and I think people are chasing that,” Elizabeth Gulino, a freelance reporter, said in an article with NPR.
Digital cameras offer the unique opportunity to encapsulate moments that feel more authentic, marked by retro-tinge and saturated hues that add significantly to the storytelling.
Others attribute this growing admiration to the slower, more intentional experience of shooting with a digital camera.
“Digital cameras also enable presence: You need to remember to carry the camera around, and in return it won’t give you notifications or show you other apps while you’re shooting,” Tim Gorichanaz, an assistant teaching professor of Information Studies at Drexel University, wrote for The Conversation.
The charm is in that simplicity — a device that does exactly one thing: take photos. It’s refreshingly deliberate in a world where everything happens too quickly. Using a digital camera forces you to consider the moment in front of you before you press a button.
Then, there’s the ritual: the ever-so-long pause between taking a photo and seeing the result. This process of transferring images from the camera to a computer, selecting which ones to save and which ones to share, builds anticipation. What could feel inconvenient instead feels like it matters; like it’s not just another picture in your endless camera roll. Every photo is weighted by the process and memories tied to it — in some ways, a keepsake. Using digital cameras feels like a true activity. A little hassle, sure, but worth it for memories that don’t just vanish into the cloud.
Whether it’s snapping a soon-to-be-viral sunset photo, a simple coffee date or cute outfits, digital cameras offer an authenticity that smartphones lack.
“There is a yearning among young people for photos that look real, especially of themselves,” Photographer Casey Fatchett said in the NPR article. “There’s a feeling there that you can’t get from your cell phone camera.”
Maybe that’s the heart of the resurgence: a collective longing for something that feels intentional and human, all within the click of a shutter. And if it happens to make your Instagram look effortlessly cool? Well, that’s just the megapixel cherry on top.
Written by: Iqra Ahmad — arts@theaggie.org
