SilvergrainClassics Analogue Awards
by Christopher Osborne.
The year is drawing to a close, and now this is the time to think back about changes in the world of analogue photography. Here are the SilvergrainClassics Annual Awards.
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The elite group of judges from SilvergrainClassics discussed all things analogue well into the night. Here are their highlights for 2021 presented as the SilvergrainClassics Analogue Awards.
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Most innovative darkroom product
The judges were universal in agreeing that this award should go to Intrepid for reinventing the enlarger concept for home use.
We are no longer in the 1980s where most home users could only afford a 35mm camera. An enlarger small enough to be stored at home, but large enough to be able to handle 4×5 negatives. Simply brilliant!
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Best Marketed Product of the Year Award
This award goes to Kosmo Foto for bringing us, Agent Shadow. We all know that it is rebadged, but that doesn’t matter. Here’s a roll of film that doesn’t look like the box was conceived by an industrial designer in 1972. Agent Shadow inspires us to load up and head out into the rainy gloom of winter.
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Best Kept Secret Award
Gossen wins this for their tiny Digisix 2 light meter. Always on, super small, and just the thing for photographing with cameras with no light meter. If you look hard enough you can find a hot shoe adapter, but honestly, it is just easier to keep it in your pocket.
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The Analogue Camera of the Year Award
Marwan and his team have shot on pretty much anything and everything. The camera that took everyone by surprise was the Minox B. Renown as a spy camera, in fact, more of these little marvels of engineering were sold to the rich and famous as cameras to impress their Monaco friends with their “flash” camera at dinner parties.
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Photochemistry of the Year
Tetenal wins the Photochemistry of the year award for their tablet developer and fix combination. Nice results, great tonality, and almost infinite shelf life. These will be perfect for the occasional user and especially good for those of us who need a development fix when we travel.
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Photobook of the Year
Publisher Mack Books wins this award together with the folk at the Sirkhane Darkroom, a charity that uses analogue photography to connect with refugee and orphaned children in Turkey, just across the border from Syria.
The children’s images are truly heartwarming. This book provides a feel-good factor and supports a great cause.
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The Back from The Past Award
This award goes to James Lane and Zone Labs for manufacturing and distributing Jay De Fehr’s updated 510 Pyro formulation to the world.
James is so enthusiastic about this super thick developer, it is like talking to the leader of a religious sect about why you should switch to chocolate brown and white negatives.
Great for scanning and printing, fantastic tonality, and this super-concentrated developer lasts forever.
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Positive Thinking
Adox is the clear winner for giving the world the Scala kit.
Here’s a set of chemistry that enables the B&W darkroom folk to reverse pretty much any Black & White film and make super cool looking transparencies.
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The Industry Collaboration Award
This award goes to Richard Taylor of Nic & Trick photography based in Folkestone, England.
Richard has worked tirelessly to find solutions to help every analogue photographer. He has tirelessly promoted products including Bellini chemistry and encouraged G3P Shanghai to reintroduce 127 and 220 format film to the photographic world.
Photographed here with his partner Nikki Coulson.
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Thinking Big
Our Thinking Big Award goes to Juergen Heiland of Heiland Electronic for his 8×10 enlarger. This innovative design is a vertical enlarger that comes in freestanding or wall-mounted versions.
This enlarger is the kind of device Q would have given James Bond had he needed a darkroom. The head and table move electronically, the lens has autofocus and the unit has a built-in Splitgrade Controller.
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The Timekeeping Award
The Timekeeping Award goes to photographer Dave Burnett who’s tales of photography assignments and Graflex cameras with Aero Ektar lenses were so gripping that SilvergrainClassic’s German efficiency failed. The normally ruthlessly timed Fireside Chat that he was a guest on ran twice as long as any other episode!
If you didn’t catch our article on the other news for 2021 – the Kodak film price increase, here is our balanced view https://silvergrainclassics.com/en/2021/10/film-price-analysis/
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