I saw a friend the other day post vacation pictures on Instagram, detailing in the caption that the photos were taken on a mid-2000s consumer digital camera, aka a device that does literally every function of its job worse than the camera we already have built into our smartphones. This is not necessarily off-trend either; disposable cameras and re-branded Polaroid cameras have both seen a resurgence among young people, a rush to give our generation its own unique character by adopting the tech of our parent's generation.
My initial reaction was that this trend is just a need for Gen Z-ers to have something more tactile in their lives. There is indeed something bewildering about the physics of an actual Polaroid camera, and an iPhone lens doesn't offer that same level of wonder. But this explanation still wouldn't apply to the digital camera example at the top, and while I think the desire for something tactile is still subconsciously underpinning all of this, it's not like I ever see college students racing to buy disposable cameras because they're head-over-heels for the physics.
More than anything, this trend seems to be a nostalgia for crap photos. iPhones ensure every photograph is correctly exposed, beautifully saturated, and focused on the correct subject. Disposable cameras don't have this luxury. I can't recall ever opening a pack of newly developed images from a disposable and thinking, "Wow, the actual quality of these images met or exceeded my expectations." Even if there is nostalgia infused into the prints, more often than not, the quality itself is pretty underwhelming.
But maybe people want something a little more crap. Our memories tend to be cleaned up versions of our realities. They're the iPhone versions, if you will. Time and distance tend to blunt the more jagged edges, giving everything a sort-of retrospective glow. But real life is much more like a disposable camera image: chaotic, unfocused, and occasionally grainy, yet somehow always able to display peeks of love and friendship within otherwise ordinary moments.
Maybe this is why we're seeing a resurgence in crap photography. iPhones capture what our memory wants us to remember, while disposable cameras capture what the moment really felt like. This is not to say I'll ever want to use a disposable camera again in my life, as I am vehemently against going out of my way to use a more inconvenient product that is worse in every discernible way than what I am currently using. But perhaps I can understand why some people find crap photos so appealing.
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