Digital photography gave us precision, speed, and infinite repetition. It perfected the technical image — but in doing so, it stripped away something that analog never lost: a sense of life.

Film photography endures because it feels different. It slows us down, resists instant gratification, and produces images with texture and presence. In a world of disposable content, film stands out as something alive.

It’s not every day that a company like Lomography asks you to test a prototype. When their team invited me to run the new Daylight Developing Tank through its paces, I was genuinely pleased. Lomography has long been at the heart of keeping film culture alive worldwide, and being part of their R&D process — before the public even got a glimpse — was a privilege.

The result was a set of articles about my experience published across their international network in four languages.

When an image is exposed on film, it isn’t yet a photograph. It lives invisibly in the emulsion, suspended between existence and nothingness — a latent ghost of light. At this stage it can still be erased, fogged, or lost entirely, but it is there, waiting. Only when it meets developer does it reveal itself, and only when it meets fixer is it frozen forever. That alchemy — the moment when something ephemeral becomes permanent — is what makes film different. Memory doesn’t just appear; it is conjured, stabilised, and preserved.

Ilford Delta 3200 has long been my film of choice for capturing intimate, atmospheric moments in low-light scenarios. There is an unmistakable magic that emerges when you push a high-ISO black-and-white emulsion like Delta 3200 to its limits.

In an era dominated by instant digital results, film photography offers a tangible connection to the artistic process. Each roll is a journey—focused on mindful composition, thoughtful metering, and the craft of chemical development. The grain, the colour rendering, and even the minor imperfections all add character, reminding us that photography is more than just pressing the camera shutter button.