Meet The Young Photographers Bringing Film Back — And Creating A More Diverse Scene (2025)

CHICAGO — For years, Sophie Gomez was a rock and punk photographer, going out to several concerts a week and shooting digital photos for her music blog.

But then film photography came into Gomez’s life, and her creative journey blossomed in ways she hadn’t predicted. Now, she works for herself and has become a known name in the indie photo film community.

Gomez, 23, is the founder and sole employee of Constant Agitation Film Lab, which she started in 2022 out of her grandparents’ attic. In just three years, Constant Agitation, called CA for short, has developed thousands of film rolls out of Gomez’s Evanston basement lab for a new wave of burgeoning local film photographers.

With analog photography making a resurgence of sorts among young photographers, local film labs are creating more services to build community, increase accessibility and eliminate gatekeeping in the art form, especially for women and people of color.

After working at Chicago-area film labs and becoming disheartened with how some were managed, Gomez jumped to her own venture, learning how to scan film, she said. Soon she realized there was a lack of financially accessible film labs in the area — as well as labs run by women. Gomez saved up about $12,000 for an old-school scanner machine, moved her lab from the attic to her parents’ basement, got more equipment — some custom-built from her father — and got to work.

“I was 19 at the time, and I was like, ‘Huh, I can do this,'” Gomez said while developing rolls of film in her lab on a recent Tuesday. “I wanted my own lab to be the one I focused on. There’s a lot of potential, and the goals and dreams are right here and are still within reach.”

Gomez has worked to diversify the film lab industry, bring a younger generation into the art and make it more accessible. She’s hosted photo walks and portrait events in Logan Square and Humboldt Park, and she now develops 350 rolls a week — so she’s usually working until 3 a.m. She loves it, she said.

In an effort to increase accessibility and meet demand, CA Lab offers dropoff boxes at Cafe Tola locations in Avondale, Lakeview and Logan Square, which have become a huge hit. Gomez recently opened a dropoff box at Amber Agave in Wicker Park, and Anticonquista Café in Pilsen will soon get one.

“Film drops are easy [and] accessible since we don’t have a brick-and-mortar yet,” Gomez said. “We wanted to make sure this was also beneficial for [the business].”

These days, picking up her camera isn’t on Gomez’s weekly schedule; instead, she travels to different Cafe Tolas on weekends, picking up other people’s rolls of films and getting a sneak peek of their creative taste. Photographers get their digital scans back within a week and can request negatives.

Film photographer Amador Porras, who regularly drops off his film at the Logan Square Cafe Tola, has been inspired by Gomez’s work to further connect with the film community. A lover of documenting Chicago, he said having the dropoff boxes has fueled his own creativity and fits with his schedule.

“I love architecture … but everyday street life is what I love to photograph, especially with everything changing, like here in Logan Square,” Porras said. “CA Lab has done meetups and walks, and more people are getting together, and it’s a great community. I notice a lot of new users. People are tired of digital and want something new; the tactile parts of cameras that are quirky and weird, people love dealing with that.”

For many photographers, film never left, though it’s getting more mainstream attention now, Gomez said.

‘Film Is Coming Back’

To accommodate the surge in interest in film photography, Latitude Chicago also added film scanning in 2021.

“There was already a market here, and what we are seeing is there’s an influx since the since the pandemic,” said Colleen Keihm, Latitude’s executive director, teacher and photographer. “Film got so popular that people started to flip it; they would buy it and then upcharge it. Latitude started selling film in 2022 with the film processing included so people would not flip it.”

Along with more film photograph seen on social media, pop stars like Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift using film cameras at concerts, out in public and in commercials has contributed to the recent wave of younger film enthusiasts, Keihm said.

The influx of younger photographers coming through Latitude’s West Loop doors aligns with its community lab model to be an inclusive and welcoming space for young talent — and be clear about its pricing. The lab has residency and art programs to foster budding photographers, Keihm said.

Part of Latitude’s and CA’s mission is to combat gatekeeping and a condescending attitude of older film lab leaders in the industry, especially historically towards women, Keihm and Gomez said.

Latitude offers camera clinics where people can bring in their camera to learn how to load and take out film and other skills without talking down to them, Keihm said.

“I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was 15 — I’m about to turn 40 — and I have experienced it all, of [people assuming] I don’t know what I’m doing, even here, of people expecting I don’t know how to use the tech around me … whereas really everybody does everything,” she said. “So we usually get the folks who are new to it, and then they choose to stay because they like it.”

Despite more darkrooms closing and film’s high price tag, it’s exciting to see new artists enter the industry to offer fresh perspectives, increase diversity and representation and even affect the cost of other analog cameras, Keihm said.

The recent film bump has even hit Chicago’s premiere film lab, CSW in West Loop. A longstanding lab with owner Oson Chin at the helm since 1986, CSW develops large-format film as well as more common sizes.

“Film is coming back — it is back,” Chin said. “I am one of those guys who has stayed as long as I can with film.”

CSW has offered film development and printing for decades, as well as digital scanning.

The demand in film-to-digital has moved CSW to acquire a scanning apparatus that offers 100 megapixel film scans, said photographer Matthias St. John, Chin’s apprentice and company partner.

“Film has a really great place in the art world because what people are looking for is a true one of one,” St. John said. “I want to be in the world, searching for different things, and it’s just a more physical way to work. … It’s just like painting.”

The changing qualities of digital photography and scanning film for digital use is another artistic expression that brings people to the art form — one that will stay, St. John said.

As more film and scanning options respond to the amateurs joining the industry, accessibility and education are also expanding. That builds a stronger film community where more people feel welcomed and seen, especially people of color, Gomez said. CA Lab has more photo walks and events planned, and she’s on the hunt for a city storefront as the lab’s next step.

“There’s a lot of labs in Chicago, and there’s room for everybody,” Gomez said. “Everyone’s able to be comfortable because each lab is going to cater to different people’s needs. But we’re a Latino- and women-owned film lab, and I know that growing up, the reason why I never would go to other film labs is because [of the] the way that they were promoted, or I just didn’t feel welcomed; I just felt like I wouldn’t have a place there. … The biggest thing I emphasize is this is really for everybody and anybody.”

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