September 2, 2024, 4:17 pm | Read time: 7 minutes
How exciting it used to be: your vacation was over and in your suitcase there was a pile of black plastic tins with rolls of film in them. And you had no idea what you had actually photographed and whether the photos had turned out at all. Those days are finally over, at least since the advent of smartphones, hardly anyone uses analog cameras anymore. TRAVELBOOK lists eight reasons why vacation photos used to be much more special.
Back in the year 2000, a record-breaking 191 million photographic films were sold just in Germany. However, the turn of the millennium also marked the turning point in the era of analog photos. Sales of photographic films from brands like Agfa, Kodak, and others plummeted. Instead, sales of digital compact cameras increased, and since Apple launched the first mass-market smartphone, the iPhone, in 2007, almost everyone has always had their camera phone in their pocket.
Since then, there have hardly been any real photos printed on paper. Instead, we almost only see snapshots online; friends post their favorite vacation photos on Facebook or Instagram, and our sister sends us pictures of her kids at the beach via email or WeTransfer.
Of course, this is all great and incredibly progressive. After all, we live in the digital age. And yes, digital photos are super practical. You can simply start taking photos, delete what you didn’t get right, and the storage space is almost limitless thanks to ever better chips and “clouds”. But we still miss them—our vacation memories captured on paper. The real analog photos that were glued into photo albums, shown to each other and exchanged.
There are many reasons why (vacation) photos used to be something very special. We have found eight.
1. The preparatory work
In the past, simply snapping away with a digital camera or smartphone, as we do today, wasn’t an option. Amateur photographers had to do a bit more to get the shot, and – in addition to the camera itself – there was one important item at the top of the vacation packing list: the roll of film. They were available with 12, 24 or 36 exposures, and you usually got them from the drugstore, where the small rolls were the cheapest. Now it was time to weigh things up carefully: How much do I want to take on vacation? Would three films of 36 shots each be enough? Then you had to insert the film into the camera. To do this, you pulled out a small piece of the film and inserted it into the feeder. If the camera buzzed happily, you had done everything right.
2. The “imperfection”
Depending on the size of the storage medium and thanks to online storage, you can shoot hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures on vacation these days. As a result, every motif is photographed umpteen times until everything is perfect. Like photographing the sunset in all its variations without even enjoying the moment itself. In the past, you photographed a motif once, twice at most. It’ll be fine, you thought, and you only bought a certain amount of film that would last you the whole vacation. Buying more film was usually impossible, especially abroad, or at least far too expensive.
Afterward, we were always happy with the pictures, no matter whether Grandma Erna was looking in the other direction or the dog was running out of the picture. Somehow, it was the “imperfection” of analog photos that made them so special.
3. The tension
The best thing about taking photos with an analog camera was the anticipation of the result and the excitement of what would be in the pictures. As soon as we got back from vacation, the first thing we did was take the films to be developed. You had to patiently wait for up to a week, and the disappointment was palpable when the photo envelope bearing your name wasn’t yet on the shelf at “Dm” or “Schlecker”. But when the photos were finally ready, the joy was immeasurable. It felt a bit like having a birthday.
4. The element of surprise
When you finally held the analog vacation photos in your hands and leafed through them, there was at least one special moment. Specifically, when a photo appeared that you didn’t even know you had taken. Then you thought with delight, “Oh, that’s right!” Or there was a photo among them that was particularly great or in which we particularly liked ourselves. Of course, there was also the odd picture that was a complete failure, with a finger in front of the lens or completely overexposed. The fact that we were allowed to leave such photos in the photo store or at the checkout of the drugstore made it a little easier than having to throw them in the bin ourselves. There’s an inherent reluctance to throw photos away. Unless the garbage can is digital.
5. The snapshots
Every photographer is happy when they capture a particularly funny or bizarre moment. Sometimes, however, photos only become snapshots years later, when viewed with a little distance. The photo in which mom has once again closed her eyes at the exact moment the shutter was released while her brother secretly makes the victory sign behind her head. Back then, people might have thought the picture was stupid. Today, we laugh about it because it depicts such a terribly typical and therefore funny scene. And I’m sure we feel the same way about a lot of the old analog photos that we have, fortunately, never sorted out.
6. The Swap Shop
If you were on vacation with friends or on a school trip, the big photo swap would then begin. Half the school class would order the picture of the Latin teacher sleeping on the bus with his mouth open or the group picture in front of the youth hostel. Long lists of names and numbers were then drawn up. Reordering became easier when, from around the end of the 1990s, an additional print was enclosed with the photo envelope, with an overview of all the analog photos in a miniature format.
Today, exchanging and sending digital photos is, of course, much easier. But it’s not nearly as personal – and fun – as it used to be.
7. The photo albums
Let’s be honest, who takes the time to create a photo album of their last vacation in this day and age? Not those photo books you can order on the Internet, but real albums with photo prints in them, held together by photo corners. People used to do that. Because you didn’t have a flood of thousands of photos, but a manageable number. And because it was far too much of a shame to simply leave the photos in their envelopes. Today, we are all the more pleased with the effort we made back then. And smile about the one or other slightly blurred picture that still made it into the album. After all, there was only this one special moment that we will always remember.
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8. Something for eternity
Digital pictures seldom find their way onto paper; instead, most are relegated to a memory chip or a home computer. Both can break quickly, and if you don’t back up your data properly, you run the risk of losing all your pictures.
Paper photos, on the other hand, are something for eternity. Throwing them away would somehow feel wrong, as if you were deleting memories. Even photo albums that no longer belong to anyone because their owner has passed away rarely end up in the bin. You can find them again at flea markets, countless albums and boxes of photos.