Walking into Hidden Light you’ll be greeted at the door by the barking of the store’s sweet-natured doorman, Moose.
Continue through the doors and you’ll find an entire gallery of hand-developed black and white photos softly lit in Hidden Light’s Monochrome Gallery.
Just a room away you can see Hidden Light’s owner, Matt Beaty, putting the finishing touches on prints for one of their many clients from around the world.
Hidden Light is one of the only traditional darkrooms that still uses the platinum-palladium printing technique – one of the oldest methods of photo printing that uses light-sensitive iron salts – and they are pushing the boundaries of that historic process. The Flagstaff-based photo company is making prints as large as four by eight feet, which Beatty says could make a vertical image about as tall as a small elephant.
In addition to printing, Hidden Light also sells analog cameras – cameras that use light-sensitive film to capture an image – as well as the film needed to use the pre-digital cameras. Workshops are also available for those who want to learn about the printing process with general photography courses in the works, according to Beaty.
Beaty, who began taking photos on his Nikon FM in high school, said analog photography is one of the best ways for new photographers to try out the medium given its low cost of entry. Currently Hidden Light has several entry-level analog cameras for sale for around $50 – compare that to the almost $300 one can expect to spend on an entry-level digital camera and you can see why Beaty recommends the former.
It's hard to imagine that this booming business almost closed its doors back in 2016. The sudden change in fate for the business no doubt has roots in a worldwide resurgence of analog photography among both professionals and amateurs alike.
What makes this resurgence notable is the fact that it's being fueled by those born long after the “death” of analog photography. These aren’t old photographers coming back to a medium they miss, but rather a whole new generation looking to experience something they never had.
Most of Beatty's film sales come from students at Northern Arizona University, which is located just a block away from the shop. He attributes the popularity to the look and tangibility of the medium
“Film is fun, it’s slow, and it's a delayed gratification,” said Beaty. “People want that inherent film look that you can only mimic digitally.”
But one thing plaguing Hidden Light is the instability in the market created by the sudden surge in popularity.
“No one can figure out where the industry is going,” said Beaty.
Although the demand for film has increased in recent years, film companies simply haven’t met that demand, creating an environment for soaring prices.
“It's savage to buy film,” said Beaty who explained that Hidden Light is constantly back-ordering film due to low supply from manufacturers.
This film shortage impacts photographers too as they are forced to front the bill on the ever-increasing price of film. Kodak, the leading manufacturer of film, cited increased costs of materials caused by supply chain issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, many hope that film companies will use the profit to reinvest into their film manufacturing given the recent surge in both popularity and pricing.
The future of analog photography is still unclear, but the future seems bright for analog photography as film manufacturers bring back discontinued products and industry newcomers develop new types of film.
Stop by Hidden Light or check out hiddenlightllc.com to see what the analog craze is all about – regardless of if you've never seen an analog camera in your life or you grew up in a world before smartphones.
