The Existence of Film Photography in “Step Forward”

Photo by Muhammad Budiansyah

This era of digital photography does not automatically mean that photography using film is already over. As a matter of fact, some people are fond of using film to photograph, and their works now are being showcased.

Twenty two photographers belonging to a group named “Motret Pake Film” (Photographing Using Film) are exhibiting 27 photo works resulted from 135mm and 120mm films. The photos are presenting visual and style varieties.

Themed “Step Forward,” the exhibition is held at Gelanggang Mahasiswa UGM (Gadjah Mada University), Yogyakarta, from 10^th to 19^th of August. “Step Forward” could be certainly various in meaning. “For the community itself, the theme is such a wish for sustainabilityof the community. Far more important, however, is to make the film media survive and move forward in the middle of digital era,” said Didi Mugitriman, the curator of the exhibition.

Established through the online social network, Facebook, the group’s members obviously use films as their media for capturing moments. “Through film, they would like to ‘polish’ their patience, accuracy and emotional maturity to find out a natural beauty of the film’s chemical media,” Didi added.

Since its establishment on May 2009, 784 accounts have now (until August 13) joined the “Motret Pake Film” group. “The membership is open for those having Facebook accounts,” he affirmed.

Photo by Indah Ratu

Particularly in Yogyakarta, it is still easy to find film-processing labs. “We usually need only to process the films to be negatives. From these negatives, we then scan them to preview digitally,” explained Didi. According to him, it is not difficult to find 135mm films with ISO 100 and 200, “Many stores sell them.” Only the ISO 400 is a little bit hard to find since it is only available in one store in Yogyakarta.