Popular Monrovia Photographer Goes Back to the Future with 35mm Film

They shoot film, don’t they?

By TerryMiller

Many photographers are putting down their smartphones or digitalcameras in favor of shooting the old-fashioned way. Like vinyl records, goodold typewriters and other wonderful analog stuff, film has an endearing, realand uncensored appeal and is making a strong comeback among professionals and hobbyistsalike.

The invention of modern photography, by Louis Daguerre, was officiallyannounced in 1839. Cameras were being produced commerciallywithin the year of that monumental announcement. What happened in those firsthundred years was astounding, magnificent and significantly rocked the artworld.

Moving ahead to the 21st century, Steven Sasson, an engineer atEastman Kodak, built the first recorded digital camera in1975 using the CCD from a Fairchild Semiconductor. It was a workingprototype. Then, with rapid fire succession, the digital explosion changedeverything in the late 1990s. Digital cameras virtually replaced film camerasovernight and film suddenly became a thing of the past — somewhat akin to JohnCleese’s observation in the Dead Parrot skit in Monty Python: “It ceased toexist! It is no more.”

Not, however, for one determined Monrovia photographer. For 22years there’s been basically only one guy in Monrovia who would sell, developand print your 35mm film. He lives and breathes photography, especially film.

Rick Keshishi owns and operates Photoworks by Rick on FoothillBoulevard, just west of Myrtle. Keshishi is very involved in the community,photographing local events such as parades and special events.

When we first met Keshishi, 20 years ago, his shop (then in theVons shopping center) was literally buzzing and churning out hundreds of rollsof 35mm film a day and subsequent hi-tech machines were printing thosenegatives under his watchful eye.

He is a master printer whose color correcting eye is far superiorto any I have seen in this business. And although the last decade has deviatedfrom film to digital, Keshishi never skipped a beat and always continued toshoot, develop and print film while honoring new technology.

But as time and technology marched onward, small film developingand printing shops started going out of business. It was now so easy for peopleto shoot digital pictures and print those images on a home printer. Not onlywas technology getting better, it was getting much more affordable. For a fewhundred bucks, basically, you could have your own digital darkroom and printyour own pictures.

Anyone in the photo business had to adapt and embrace digitaltechnology or starve.  Keshishi did exactlythat and for years focused on all digital aspects of photography fromretouching old images to digitalizing film, 8mm reels and even converting oldVHS home movies to DVDs, etc. In fact, if it involves imaging, Keshishi is yourman.

Kodak started selling Kodak DCS-100 which had 1.3 megapixels at aprice of $13,000, originally. That seems like a lifetime ago.

Now, for some reason, 35mm film is making a comeback — a bigcomeback. Photoworks by Rick has seen a sudden uptick in the number of rolls ofgood old Kodak 35mm film being dropped off for developing and printing. He hasalso been able to use his large scale printers to make massive signs for thelocal community.

“No one could foresee this after such a digital revolution, it’swonderful.” Keshishi told Monrovia Weekly.

The resurgence of film is a marvelous trend as many who usedigital cameras forget the basic formulas that help contribute to a good image.Experimenting with manual or aperture priority settings on these digitalcameras could produce much better results.

Photoworks by Rick is located at 109 W. Foothill Blvd. inMonrovia. For more information, call (626) 303-5555, emailrick@photoworksbyrick.com, or visit photoworksbyrick.com.

For more research on those incredible years as photographyevolved, I highly recommend one of my favorite references: Juliet Hacking’sbook “Photography: the Whole Story.”

More from Monrovia Weekly