Sign of the Times

Passed through Belmar on my way to the Studio (had some business at the Belmar Arts Council). Coming up Main Street I noticed a familiar business was gone. The location that had housed our local photo shop was dark, empty, missing its big sign, and available for rent. I don't know the exact circumstances that led to it closing, but I would assume it's the rapid disappearance of traditional photography over the last few years. I used to be a regular customer there. It's where I went when I needed black and white work done- they'd make me a contact sheet of each roll and do the enlargements in house. And it's where I bought and developed all my slide film, at least several rolls a year. Regular 35 mm print film, too. But times have changed. The B&W photos were often requested by newspapers for publicity, but now they do all digital formatting, and if they can't print color jpg, a touch of a button does the conversion. Kodak stopped making the slide film I used to use for shooting my prints and student work. I now shoot all the art digitally. I haven't even shot print film in a few years. And that's pretty much the same for everyone else. (Earlier this week one of my students was puzzled that some of the photos he had developed weren't printed. When I suggested that he check the negatives to see how those shots had turned out, he didn't know what film negatives were.) I still find it shocking how quickly the traditional photo industry disappeared, after being a part of everyone's life for better than a century. But seeing what's happened in the last several years, I can't be shocked that the store is gone.