Lab fosters interest in old school photography

 In Business

David Herzog is supporting a renaissance of analog photography, opening a film lab in Creemore.
He said in the past five years there has been a resurgence of interest in film photography and a shortage of photography supply stores, exacerbated by the fact that a lot of the surviving stores and labs may be winding down operations, has made it difficult to source supplies.
“I want to create a space where artists can come together and talk about projects they are working on, maybe show some work, and create a dialogue,” said Herzog, adding that the connections made with people is what he loves about photography.
A love of photography runs in the family. Herzog says his grandfather has had a long career designing lenses for Leica, and his mother did a stint for the company as well. Herzog got his first film camera as a gift from his father about five years ago, and recalls feeling terrified as he set out to shoot his first roll of black and white film. He said when he got the negatives back there was only one frame on the roll that could be considered a good shot but it was enough encouragement to keep shooting.
Herzog was raised in Switzerland, where he went to school for design engineering, but said when he graduated he had this desire to come home to Canada where some of his family is. Even though he had never lived in the country – he had only come for long visits– Herzog said he always thought of Canada as home and he had wanted to live here since he was a child.
The move at Christmas of 2019 inspired a body of work about coming home and looking at this place as an outsider. The pandemic gave the theme a new gravitas as the concept of home took on a deep meaning for everyone immobilized by the pandemic.
The work can be seen on the wall of the lab as examples of the fine art printing services offered there on a variety of high quality archival fibre papers.
Herzog has a mission to make new 35mm and 120mm film accessible to photographers in the area, and he is also selling a variety of expired films, which can be desirable to photographers for their unpredictable results, and has plans to carry films by new producers that have established product lines in recent years. The Creemore Film Lab is also a place where one might fight some vintage cameras and lenses, as Herzog is tapping into a supply by a large distributor, and is purchasing and accepting donations of equipment.
The lab is equipped with a C-41 colour film processor that Herzog will be putting into service once the demand grows, making it a full service film and photo processing lab, which also offers 35mm negative scanning for those looking to digitize.
The Creemore Film Lab is located at 3 Caroline St. W, Suite 2, and is open Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Find the business on Instagram and visit www.davidgherzog.ca to see his work.
E-mail thecreemorefilmlab@outlook.com or call 705-794-0340.

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