Adrian Dungert is the founder of the ANALOGHELD

ANALOGHELD – Adrian Dungert

Behind the scenes at ANALOGHELD, a film subscription service. We talk to founder Adrian Dungert

By Christopher Osborne.

An ANALOGHELD film box in 35mm.

ANALOGHELD is a subscription service that offers a selection of films every quarter. It is based in Germany, but ships worldwide. This is the perfect service for photographers who like to experiment with different films regularly. Films range from current stocks that one might overlook such as KONO! Delight to 1979 expired Kodak Ektachrome.

Films can be shipped in a branded tin that holds either 4×120 rolls or 3x35mm cassettes with a foam spacer. As well as a method to safely store your film, a nice touch is the “do not x-ray” instructions in German, English, Chinese, Spanish, French and Russian on the reverse.

Liis Vahtra – Kodak Portra 400 NC, expired 12/2007.

Each quarter, ANALOGHELD assembles a collection of new, expired or experimental film, and sends this to subscribers from all around the world. Each tin or refill pack comes with a leaflet explaining what each film is, how it should be used and why it is special.

Adrian sources film directly from traditional outlets, and boutique manufacturers such as Film Washi, NoColorStudio or 1826 Film Lab. As we are all aware, the availability of freezer-stored, out-of-date film is reducing, and prices are increasing. Adrian has a network of undercover agents who help him source well-stored film.

Magnus Andersson – ANALOGHELD tbd. limited 100, expired 07/2023.

The conception of completely new products and services is one of the positive aspects of the global analogue community. ANALOGHELD’s membership has been steadily increasing. It is always interesting to hear the backstory and find out how services like ANALOGHELD were conceived.

It turns out that the ideas that became the ANALOGHELD service were generated through a series of captivating coincidences. The first event was that Adrian transferred to China in 2017. He had been interested in photography but wasn’t feeling inspired by digital photography. A friend suggested that he try film photography and offered to lend him a film camera. A few weeks later Adrian visited a huge multi-storey camera market in Beijing. He picked up a Hasselblad 503cw and used this to photograph China.

Martynas Justinevicius – Hanalogital BOKEH 200, expired 02/2023.

One evening Adrian and his partner were at dinner. At the end of the meal, they were given fortune cookies in a presentation tin. Adrian discovered that the tins could fit 4 rolls of 120 film perfectly. A few nights of research later Adrian was able to figure out who manufactured the tins.

By another coincidence, Adrian transferred back to Germany shortly before the pandemic struck. He now had a supply of film storage tins with a useful design, that was robust and not at risk of breaking. However, once the world locked down no one was travelling and “do not x-ray” instructions in 6 languages didn’t prove to be the expected sales argument.

Adrian started thinking about how to sell his product differently, and this is how the subscription concept was born.

Angelos Matakiadis – Kodak Ektachrome 160 Tungsten, expired 07/1979.

I asked Adrian how he sourced the film. “New film is easy”, he says. While it is much more challenging to get your hands on old rolls, especially in bigger quantities and properly stored. “I have built up a network of people who will send me a photo of 1500 rolls of expired stock and ask would you like to buy this? A lot of it comes from businesses that have stored film for years and have to clear out stock because they have closed.” He has just taken delivery of a large batch of Kodak Portra 100T for example.

In early 2024, ANALOGHELD plans to offer the option of purchasing developing, scanning and or printing. A voucher will be included in the pack of film and the photographer will be able to send their film to SilvergrainClassics lab. This will be particularly useful for cine films with ramjet and for expired stock. The team at SilvergrainClassics will be provided with sample rolls before release and they will tune the development time for the best possible results.

Leopold Achilles – Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400, expired 08/2016.

This subscription service might be the perfect way to force yourself out of a rut and try something different. Previous packs have included films as diverse as Fujichrome Sensia, Hanalogital film soup films and Kodak Vision 3 500T movie film spooled for still film cameras for example. You can choose whether you would like colour, black & white or both at the time that you buy a subscription. Subscriptions are available for both 35mm and 120 shooters and provide photographers with a truly surprising variety of film every three months.

And finally, why the name ANALOGHELD? The name translates to AnalogueHero in English.

The ANALOGHELD filmbox.

You can see more of ANALOGHELD on Instagram at @analogheld and on the web at https://www.analogheld.de/en/home-en/

The photographers:

Angelos Matakiadis @angelos_matakiadis

Liis Vahtra @the.liis

Leopold Achilles @leopold.achilles

Magnus Andersson @geschmagnus

Martynas Justinevicius @glidephotos

Images © Angelos Matakiadis, Liis Vahtra, Leopold Achilles, Magnus Andersson, and Martynas Justinevicius 2023.

You might also be interested in this article on Film Washi https://silvergrainclassics.com/en/2020/11/film-washi-analogue-outpost/

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