I’m horrified each time I see somebody working with film photography. It’s the type of interaction with the physical world I always fear. I rather handle photo’s digitally. Easy to edit, publish and store. Everything zen.

But lately I realised another downside to analogue photography. That cute retro experience is not only powered by a long sheet of film but also by various chemicals. And if you’re a productive photographer, you’ll end up with a physical archive of every photo you ever took, no matter if it was worth archiving to begin with. So your children can enjoy that out-of-focus picture you took of your nose by accident.

I would like to warn the world about this trend but I want to do that based on facts and not on assumptions even though they seem logical. I tried to put my logic to the test but a quick search on the internet seems to reveal that nobody took up the daunting task yet to compare the environmental impact of both types of photography. Everybody just sum up the various ways analogue and digital photography are bad for the environment but shy away from assessing the scope of these drawbacks.

I did see one drawback when it comes to digital cameras even though the criticism has some caveats. Manufacturing things, especially complex devices like cameras take a lot of energy. For example: during the lifetime of an iPhone, somewhere around 80% of all energy it will ever use, went into producing that thing. That’s why extending the lifetime of your phone or camera is more effective than trying to lower its energy consumption.

Another thing is that digital cameras quickly become obsolete. Although they won’t become obsolete as fast as they did in the 2000s, your camera will only be in its prime for the first few years. If you own a few cameras, there is a change you’re underusing them. A lot of earth’s resources went into manufacturing a camera that is collecting dust 99,9% of the time.

So the best advice I can give with the information that I can find is this: if you take a lot of photos, go digital. If not, analogue might be fine.

But even that can be up for discussion. It’s true that digital cameras are quickly obsolete while film cameras from decades ago still are around. But even though you do Mother Nature a favour by buying cool 1980’s camera gear in a thrift shop, I don’t think FujiFilm’s Instax cameras will last multiple decades.

As often, issues are more complex than they seem at first sight. Until we see more relevant data, my stance on analogue photography remains. Let’s appreciate retro tech but without the environmental abuse that came with it.