The astonishing revolution in digital photography enabled anyone and everyone to take pictures, quickly and auto-matically, nonstop, but also obsessively and thoughtlessly. I’ve recently come to a realization: film is back. Especially for the younger generations. Half of this issue was shot on film, although you may not notice the difference between the digital and analog images. That’s because digital pictures are retouched and processed to look like film. So, this revival of film means a lot to Purple.
Purple was never anti-digital and still isn’t. And it’s not about nostalgia or a crusade to bring back film. Nor is it in any way related to specialists’ discussions of the future of photography. It’s more about the essence of a magazine like Purple, which is devoted to creativity in the digital age. The Internet offers instant information and fast consumerism. Magazines like ours are made to resist immediacy and to celebrate the creative community in physical documents that last into the future.
Film’s comeback follows this link to material creativity. Photographing on film is, of course, more difficult. It demands vision and reflection. Before any final picture is developed and printed, it exists only as a projection in a photographer’s mind. More than that, a photograph made from film is more sensual, more personal, and more unpredictable. That’s what Purple likes in the digital era, something more substantial.
— OLIVIER ZAHM
[Table of contents]
night pictures
by Olivier Zahm and Stéphane Feugère with a portfolio by Sophie Bramly
by Michel Butel
by John Jefferson Selve
by Karley Sciortino
by Éric Troncy
by Angelo Flaccavento
by Olivier Zahm
by Olivier Zahm
by Olivier Zahm
by Olivier Zahm
by Sven Schumann
by Olivier Zahm
by Kazumi Kurigami
by Casper Sejersen
by Chikashi Suzuki
by Johann Bouché-Pillon
by Katja Rahlwes
by Maxime Ballesteros
by Andreas Larsson
by Benoit Peverelli
by Terry Richardson
by Simon Liberati
by Anne Dressen
by Olivier Zahm
by Takashi Homma