Meg Turner

Printmaker and photographer working out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her practice spans prints, photography, and installation projects that respond to the landscape and the community she is part of.

In addition to her own work and contract printing, Meg serves as the master printer for local photogravure and wet collodion artist Josephine Sacabo. She founded the New Orleans Community Printshop and has since stepped back from a leadership position to focus on her studio practice.

She shoots primarily with a 4×5 Crown Graphic press camera, working in film and wet collodion.

A circular portrait embedded in a dramatic magenta-to-indigo gradient field, with deep black edges framing the composition

Why Film Photography Is Making a Comeback in the Digital Age

Film photography is having a fresh moment. In an era of phone cameras, instant uploads and seemingly unlimited storage, photographers are returning to rolls of 35mm film, medium format negatives, instant cameras and historic processes such as wet collodion. The appeal is not simply nostalgia. It is a response to the speed, sameness and constant availability of digital images.

For many artists, analogue photography creates a slower relationship with looking. Each frame costs money, development takes time and the final image exists as a physical object. Across Australia, from Melbourne’s independent darkrooms to Sydney’s gallery scene and regional creative communities, that considered approach is attracting new photographers as well as people who remember shooting film before digital cameras took over.

A Slower Way To Make Pictures

Digital photography encourages constant capture. A photographer can take hundreds of frames, check each image immediately and delete anything that feels imperfect. Film changes that rhythm. When there are only twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six exposures on a roll, every decision becomes more deliberate.

This slower pace can make observation sharper. Light on a suburban veranda, a fleeting expression on a tram or the texture of an old shopfront may receive more attention when the photographer cannot rely on endless retries. Waiting for development also creates space for reflection, allowing the image to become a memory before it is reviewed.

Film is particularly attractive to people who feel worn out by the speed of online culture. There is something grounding about loading a camera, walking through a neighbourhood and making pictures without constantly checking a screen. It is a creative practice that rewards patience rather than instant reaction.

Texture, Colour And The Physical Image

Film has a distinctive visual language. Grain, halation, colour shifts and subtle variations in exposure give photographs a tactile quality that can be difficult to reproduce convincingly with a digital filter. Black-and-white negatives may hold rich tonal transitions, while colour film can produce gentle skin tones and atmospheric shadows.

The negative is also part of the artwork. It can be held, stored, scanned, printed in a darkroom or revisited years later. A silver gelatin print, contact print or cyanotype carries evidence of its making in a way that a file on a hard drive does not. Dust, edge markings and small inconsistencies may become meaningful features rather than faults.

For printmakers and photographers, this physical quality creates a natural connection between image-making and object-making. The photograph can move from camera to negative, enlarger, paper and wall, gaining depth through each stage. This process is central to artists working with traditional printmaking, experimental photography and installation.

Digital Fatigue And The Search For Presence

People are surrounded by images, yet many digital photographs disappear into camera rolls and social feeds. They may be viewed once, compressed by an app and forgotten among thousands of similar files. Film offers a sense of occasion because the photograph is less disposable.

The return to analogue methods also reflects growing concern about attention. A phone is a camera, editing suite, publishing platform and notification centre in one device. Using a separate film camera can remove some of those distractions. It gives the photographer a tool with a narrower purpose and a stronger physical presence.

This does not mean film is automatically more authentic. Digital photography remains flexible, accessible and powerful, particularly for documentary work and quick experimentation. The renewed interest in film comes from choosing limits. Many photographers move between digital and analogue formats, selecting the process that best suits the subject, mood or final presentation.

Local Communities Keep The Process Alive

Australia has a lively network of community darkrooms, artist-run spaces and photography groups. In Melbourne, photographers can find workshops and shared facilities around inner-city creative districts such as Fitzroy, Collingwood and Brunswick. These spaces make analogue photography less intimidating by providing enlargers, chemicals, scanning equipment and guidance.

Sydney’s galleries, photography festivals and independent studios also help connect emerging artists with collectors and audiences. In Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart, local workshops and arts organisations support people who want to learn film processing without building a darkroom at home. Regional photographers often add their own perspective, documenting coastlines, farms, bushland and small-town life.

The social element matters. Someone who says they are “keen for a shoot” or wants to develop a roll on the weekend may find a community ready to share advice about cameras, chemistry and paper. In Australia, where specialist materials can be expensive to import and local stock can vary, these networks help photographers swap supplies, recommend reliable labs and make the hobby more sustainable.

What Brings Photographers Back To Film

Film photography has practical and creative benefits that continue to attract new users. Its appeal often comes from a combination of the following:

The Australian market also shapes how people approach the medium. A roll of imported colour film can be noticeably dearer than it was a few years ago, and professional processing may involve postage if there is no nearby lab. Many photographers respond by choosing black-and-white film, buying in batches or learning to develop at home.

For someone in Australia, shipping time and summer heat can also influence material choices. Film is often stored carefully, while photographers plan around lab opening hours and Australia Post delivery times. These small logistical details can make the process feel more deliberate, reinforcing the sense that each image has value.

Process Becomes Part Of The Artwork

Artists are drawn to analogue photography because the method can carry meaning. A wet collodion portrait, for instance, requires careful preparation, controlled exposure and immediate processing. The resulting plate is fragile, singular and visibly connected to the conditions in which it was made.

Traditional darkroom printing offers another kind of authorship. Dodging, burning, contrast control and paper selection allow the artist to shape a print through repeated attention. The final image is not simply a photograph transferred to paper; it is the result of a physical conversation between negative, enlarger, chemicals, light and hand.

This matters in contemporary art, where process often sits alongside subject. An installation may combine photographs with objects, architectural fragments, sound or handmade prints. Film can support that expanded practice because it produces materials that occupy space: negatives, contact sheets, test strips, plates and framed prints.

A Bridge Between Generations And New Ideas

The film revival includes experienced photographers returning to equipment they once put away, but it also includes younger artists discovering analogue methods for the first time. A second-hand SLR, an inherited rangefinder or a basic point-and-shoot can become an entry into visual history and independent experimentation.

Learning from earlier processes does not require copying the past. Contemporary photographers combine film negatives with digital scanning, projection, collage, bookmaking and large-scale printing. Some deliberately leave sprocket holes and processing marks visible, while others use analogue material as a starting point for heavily altered work.

This exchange between old and new is one reason the medium remains relevant. Film is not surviving by pretending the digital age never happened. It is being reinterpreted through current concerns about memory, materiality, slowness and environmental attention. The result is a broad field that includes documentary photography, portraiture, experimental image-making and gallery installation.

For artists such as Meg Turner, the relationship between photography and printmaking demonstrates how an image can develop through several forms. Film, darkroom work, wet collodion and traditional printing all create opportunities to slow down, collaborate and make an object with a clear physical presence. Contract printing and community printshop involvement extend that process beyond a single studio, connecting individual practice with a wider creative culture.

Film photography’s return is therefore less about rejecting digital tools than about recovering choice. A photographer may use a phone for convenience, a digital camera for speed and film for its texture, discipline or emotional weight. Each method offers a different way to notice the world.

Exploring analogue photography can begin with a borrowed camera, a local workshop or one carefully chosen roll. Visit Meg Turner’s portfolio to see how film, photography, printmaking and installation can come together in a thoughtful contemporary practice, and get in touch to discuss artwork, collaboration or contract printing services.