by Tom Frost, LUNCH Founding Member

I’m aware this is the inaugural member post, so I will try not to ramble too much.

A few weeks ago, I got back some rolls of XP2. I scanned them, as per usual, and the familiar joy and surprise that come along with converting the images wasn’t there. I’ve been shooting film for almost two decades, and I feared the novelty of it for everyday shooting may have finally worn off. Does it make me any less of a photographer that Im rejecting tradition and embracing digital? I don’t think so. But how could I possibly be tired of the one thing Im passionate about?

I think theres absolutely a time and a place for film. I’ll still shoot a roll of Pan F for work gigs, but for the most part I feel there’s no need anymore. Why? Social media has slowly been enshittifying the medium by welcoming lower and lower standards of what “good” film photography by lauding “aesthetic” over technical skill. There is so much bad, blown out, poorly framed, unusable slop in everyone’s feeds that it’s skewing the perspective of what genuine film photography work looks like. It’s cheapened the whole film experience, and conversely, because its such a desired look by the masses, is almost a requirement to stay relevant. It’s not to say there isn’t any good film work out there, there is. It’s just being diluted.

Part of the LUNCH ethos is to reinforce the idea that there is no “correct” way or “requirement” to make photographs, but there is a wrong way to think. Social media pressures are skewing artists away from originality in favor of who can best do what the algorithm wants. How are we supposed to innovate if all artists are constantly in a race to one-up each other while effectively making art to satisfy the algorithm’s “flavor of the month”? I think the first step, and to quote Wargames – “the only way to win is not to play.”

I’m fully convinced that to truly be an artist, and create works that are honest and pure, you absolutely cannot participate in any social media, full stop. I have run the social media rat race, and it constantly made me emotionally sick. I was losing the spark of why I became a photographer in the first place: to make art for myself.

Before I fully confuse or scare off any readers that may have gotten this far, I will touch on the monochrome element of this post. The day I got those rolls back, I looked through my back log of scans of B&W street work, looked at my color street work, and decided in that moment (albeit very impulsive) to buy a monochrome camera, the Ricoh GR4. The photos I have in this post are from my time with it. Maybe I’ll write a review on it in a few months, but after using it for a few weeks, it has changed my perspective on B&W shooting, enough for me to commit fully to B&W for personal work.

How does this in any way relate to my anti-social media rant? I’ll tie it together with a story.

A few weeks prior to the monochrome revelation, I was asked to do a small showing at a friends event. I put together around 30 smaller B&W prints, sleeved them and laid them out on a table. Before I could even sit down, I had a guy come up to me and start looking through them in dismay, and seemingly offended said

“Where’s the color?”

I told him I don’t typically shoot color for my personal work. He kept looking and said

“Everything I see online is in color, man. You really need to get on that. I don’t think you’re gonna sell any of these.”

I told him thats not really how art works, and he left in a huff. I dwelled on this interaction all night, and thats when I realized that he thought my art wasn’t “good” because it wasn’t up to the arbitrary standards his algo has baked into his mind. That or he’s just a fucking moron. Either way, this interaction was the first time social media influence has crossed over into the real world with a negative personal impact on my life and art. After I finished loading my car that night, I decided to remove LUNCH from social media all together. We will have this site and physical events, and thats it.

In several ways, choosing to abstain from social media is effectively the same as committing to monochrome. By giving up convention and accessibility, it affords you the ability to creatively work with yourself, for yourself. Yes, it comes at the cost of exposure, but I firmly believe that an artist’s commitment to the truest vision of their work should be rewarded, and LUNCH aims to find those artists and do just that.

-TF