I started shooting film about 20 years ago. Back then, nobody looked up how to load a roll in a video. If I wondered about something, I opened a book. I put the two books I held onto in those days next to two that came out recently. The way people learn film has changed more than I expected.
It Started with Leaving with an Old Camera (낡은 카메라를 들고 떠나다)
I read this one right when I was starting film. It first came out from Cheongeoram Media in 2004, written by four documentary photographers: Lee Sang-yeop, Lim Jae-cheon, Kang Je-wook and Noh Soon-taek. That year, the Weekly Kyunghyang book review described it as a book in which the four split up 13 cheap cameras that were easy to find even in Korea and went out into the world with them.
Volume 2 came out in 2006. Its subtitle is "Simple and Beautiful Vision, Film Cameras" (단순하고 아름다운 시선, 필름 카메라). According to the book's description, six photographers split up 10 cameras, mostly rangefinders, such as the Leica M6, the Soviet Union's first camera, the FED 1, and the Kodak Retina IIIc. The book is less about how to handle a camera than about the roads those photographers took with it. Just the word "old" (낡은) in the title tells you how film cameras were seen at the time.
Iru's Photos Taken on Film (이루의 필름으로 찍는 사진), Which I Read Over Ten Times in the Military
During my military service, I read this book more than ten times. It came out from Youngjin Media in October 2007, a large format at 250 pages and 26 cm tall. The subtitle in the library record is "The first practical introduction to film and film cameras" (필름과 필름 카메라에 대한 최초의 활용 입문서).
According to the author bio, Iru is the owner of the Chungmuro lab Photomaru (포토마루). The previous book was written by photographers; this one was written by someone who runs a lab. It is an introduction that came out of a place where you meet people dropping off film every day. In 2011, Iru's Photos Taken on Film Season 2 (이루의 필름으로 찍는 사진 Season 2) followed, with the subtitle "Iru's second story of film and film cameras" (이루의 두 번째, 필름과 필름 카메라 이야기). Photomaru is also in the 5ft.mag lab list.
2020: Your Good Moments, Film Photography (당신의 좋은 순간, 필름 사진)
13 years later, in June 2020, Dongyang Books published Your Good Moments, Film Photography. The author is Filmlog, which runs a service that records the film you drop off roll by roll and stores it online. According to the publisher's description, the book covers everything from the basics of using a film camera to developing, scanning and printing, and also includes how to reuse a disposable camera and interviews with three people who work in film. It even comes with a free development and scan coupon.
The whole loop of shooting, dropping off and getting your scans back fits in one book. With the coupon included, it looks designed so that you go drop off a roll the moment you close it.
Now It's a Pocket Notebook: Film Life Guide (필름생활안내서)
What catches my eye on the shelves these days is the revised edition of Film Life Guide (필름생활안내서) from Pixel per inch (픽셀퍼인치). The sales page reads "Ilsamosamyuk × Pixel per inch" (일삼오삼육X픽셀퍼인치). It comes as two volumes, a basic one with a green cover and an advanced one with a pink cover, both spiral-bound. The advanced volume is 105 × 148 mm and 64 pages. The cover says "Simple Instruction Manual" (간단사용매뉴얼 INSTRUCTION MANUAL), and below it, "Keep this guide close at hand for quick reference." (빠른 참조를 위해 이 안내서를 가까운 곳에 두십시오.) The cover imitates the user manual that came with a camera when you bought it.
Inside, numbers mark a drawing of the film box and cartridge, and the guide goes through the film name, speed, number of exposures, expiration date, DX code, perforations and development method one by one. There is also a table that separates C-41, E-6 and ECN-2. Another spread has a hand drawing and the line "Do you like the camera you're shooting with and your photos? Good. Keep shooting." (찍고 있는 카메라와 사진이 마음에 드십니까? 좋습니다. 계속 찍으십시오.)
The description of the advanced volume says, "Made for those who want to go beyond the basics and learn something a little more in depth" (기본적인 내용에서 벗어나 조금 더 심도 있는 내용을 알고 싶으신 분들을 위해 제작하였습니다). Twenty years ago I reopened a big book again and again. Now you can carry a palm-sized notebook in your bag and pull it out when you need it.
Putting the Four Side by Side
From photographers' travelogues to a lab owner's introduction, then to a book from a film-record service and a notebook that goes in your bag. The place where people learn film has moved a little at a time. If you were starting film now, which book would you open first? If you pick one of the older books, film prices and lab conditions are different from back then, so it's better to double-check the numbers in the book against today's.
