While out shopping today I saw this pathetic little corner of the Target customer service area. Look at that. One counter, a bin full of unclaimed packs of snapshots, and an old obsolete enlargement machine. No attendant. This reminds me of how much photography has changed since I was a child.
In the late 70s I worked as a print processor in the 200,000 square foot Fotomat Labs. On a typical Sunday night, I would go into work at 11pm and get off at 7am Monday morning. In that span of time we would process, print, package and ship out around 22,000 rolls of film.
That is the strangest job I have ever had. My position was to monitor all the prints as they came streaming out of the darkroom. Yes, that means I could look at all your stupid photos all night long. Our policy was to process everything anyone shot. And, yes, people would shoot anything you can imagine. And, many things you can't imagine.
So, soon the term 'shooting film' will go by the way of 'hang up the phone', 'watch the tube', and 'read the paper'. In fact, I shot this pic on my phone and emailed it to my account and posted it up here all in about 45 minutes. No trip to the drugstore. No smelly fingers from developer/stopbath/fixer.
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