The new trending thing is a long forgotten old classic. This is everywhere. You can see it fashion, in photography, in movies even in car production. Some cars are having the best new engines and gadjets, but the smooth exterior of the 60-70 culture. There is no going OUT of this thing. Its just life.
I think this lo-fi look is so popular because it's the opposite of what we have now which is - technological damn near perfection that makes media ultimately disposable and meaningless. The lo-fi thing gives people at least the feeling of some meaning, intention, imperfection, personality, something to hang onto. At least it's something.
For me lo-fi aesthetics is just a by product of freedom. I did some crazy things with graphic 20 years ago, lo fi as hell, but way more creative than stuff I'm doing commercially today
Was talking to a friend recently about the feeling of reality becoming more and more important in an age where everything *feels* digital and worst of all, boring. Its why i started handing out polaroids for free at pride and after club nights, tbh. Much more fun than instagram and i get less existential dread. Anyway great video as ever ^^
I think this is a kind of longing for the good old times when life was easier for many of us. I also miss the 80s90s as an older guy. The world felt real back then. So many things feel fake nowadays, fake photos, fake news... Social media made everything worse. What was ment to unite people separated them. That's why people love nostalgic things.
Lo-fi has been with us for years in the music world - artists preferring to record on analog tape rather than 64 track Protools digital format, the increasing interest in vinyl records and cassettes. Nostalgia has always been important in photography as well, that’s often why people take photos, to be reminded of places, people, events they attended. As you point out, it also shows people that they can create art without hugely expensive equipment and it doesn’t have to be pristine and perfect to be interesting. Long live Lo-fi imperfection!
My folks say the Zs remind them of themselves in the 70s! Return to form, rejecting the man, handmaking clothes, buying used, and wanting smaller houses. I love your theory on lofi being a reflection of unease and solitude. I see it as a way to find some peace and quiet in this crazy world. Something human, when everything around is corporate.
Nice one, Hunter! In photography, I think it also relates to how "good" phone cameras became to the regular viewer. It seems that nowadays you only need to figure out composition, and the phone would do the rest for you where most people are comfortable enough with the result. All the punchy, very HDR-y and crisp looks, with the software help to denoise, etc. makes it very easy to come up with a "good" picture for the regular viewer. And what I want to say with regular viewer, I mean anyone who does not own a camera not because of budget, but because "a phone is good enough". What happens with this, is that photos end up looking the same. Everyone can snap a saturated, crisp with no blown out highlights or crushed shadows with a point and shoot in a phone. So nowadays grabbing a camera and lens combination of your choice suddenly gives your photos a "different look" to most that's out there. I'm not sure this is exactly the reason (or even "a" reason), but it is for me. I currently enjoy very much the process of getting out with the camera (staying hydrated) and taking pictures with either some crushed shadow or blown out highlights in case I want to show "the other part" of the picture. Not everything needs to be in frame or visible. It all depends on what you want to tell with it.
100% - I think people are getting tired of the very recognisable iPhone look with hdr skies that are all the exact same blue, and you only have to look at the app store to see how well the alternatives to the camera app like Halide and Zerocam are doing
Gotta say man you are one of my favorite channels right now. Everything you make is super well done and thought out. Always very inspiring. Glad to see you’re getting the success you deserve!
I think Mark Fisher's discussion of hauntology in his book "Ghosts of my Life" goes a long way towards explaining this phenomenon in the context of contemporary politics and society.
Cracking video with clear and inspiring descriptions. After watching your videos I always feel my time was invested wisely. Hope your recovery is going well!
I think about this a lot and honestly I actively avoid the lofi and film grain tropes filmmakers use because I have a feeling when people look back it’s going to be very dated and like: “oh yeah this is from the 2020s because there’s loads of fake grain and hellation on everything.”
maybe - or maybe people will collectively decide that the analogue look is what we prefer for some media. I wouldn't want to watch a nature documentary shot on 500T, but I'd prefer a comedy film that's got some character and noise.
also form and constraints actually promote creativity. Like a problem to solve with a given set of tools. So rather than 'go make something', it's write a sonnet with a gritty texture' or 'paint a 10 x 4 landscape with these 4 pigments '. Limitations can be interesting.
I don't have the money for Lightroom or brand new camera gear. I got into photography this year with a couple Sony Mavica floppy drive cameras, and this week ordered a Nikon D80 from 2006. Sure, they're bigger and clunkier and with worse specs than a brand new mirrorless, but it also sets me away from the really snobby elitist photographer community. I know I'm a newbie and my skills aren't up to snuff, and I don't bother editing because I don't have the energy or skills. I shoot to have fun.
@@huntercreatesthings Yep! I'm not going to bother with editing, so why clog up my storage with RAW files? I'm not trying to be a pro, if I can show this to my friends and family and they like it, I think I've accomplished my goal.
I think one reason is what you got at is "real." We don't want perfect. I just saw a Levi ad shot on a 2000 digicam and it just FEELS like a regular person made it. In getting back into photography and learning all about GAS, I realized quickly that the "best" camera was an ad. I just needed the one that did things the way I wanted to do them. So you're really on the button on this one with lofi aesthetic, I think. I want to think past lofi girl, but I feel like it's in the neighborhood. Like vinyl records, and typewriters and all that, too.
For sure! Also old cars are cooler than ever - because they're more real. If we spend all day on a computer, why sit in one when we're on our way home?
A good explanation and topic, thank you. I'm already struck by how much lofi there is in advertising, especially visuals for fashion brands. I think lofi will survive - it actually always has. Linocut art printing never died and never will. As technologies become 'redundant' we actually discover their truer value. Aside from the look, one of the values of digicams and film is constraint. It strips away decision paralysis because a more finite set of things can be done, pushing us to be more creative within that constraint. And we, rather than the tool, are a much bigger part of the output.
@@huntercreatesthings spoiler alert, I also grew up in NZ, so I pick believe it. OK yeah, so some stuff over-sauces "constraint", we can agree now. So then this: is "lofi" in photography (digicam, film, etc) a useful constraint to boost creativity, or is that in itself some rationalisation BS because actually its about money in the end? (Just give me the gear)?
Excuse my ignorance this has probably been discussed to death. What do you think about Lofi? Is it something that will hang in an art gallery or just something that is going to be shown on the internet. Will it stand the test of time hanging in a museum for 100 years? I am a huge fan of printing my images, just seems to be a finished piece of art to me. Anyway, you or someone here can give me their thoughts.
I'm possibly pointing out the obvious here but there has to be a multitude of reasons why lofi has remained popular. It is this variety of reasons that gives the genre robustness and longevity. People from different walks of life have different reasons to flit in and out of the genre, and to rediscover it in time, with the fire being kept alight by others in between.
Hey big bro. Speaking of laptops, I’ve been thinking of getting a new one. But people keep making a big deal about how important RAM is for editing… What would you suggest?
@@huntercreatesthings funny in a nice way, bc most content creators do it for the "majority of the public" while you do it for other artists. and i love it.
@@huntercreatesthingsI calculatet a few weeks ago, I do dev for me and some friends and if I subtract that money from my spendings im at roughly 700€ for three years
Trying to work out what that movie is you refer to that everyone should watch. I can't make out what you're saying. "June Pattoo" or something? A web search comes up empty.
@@cabbelos Well, "dune" isn't pronounced "June." And it's cumulonimbus. :-) As for Dune (not June), the films are decent, if not particularly memorable.
The new trending thing is a long forgotten old classic. This is everywhere. You can see it fashion, in photography, in movies even in car production. Some cars are having the best new engines and gadjets, but the smooth exterior of the 60-70 culture. There is no going OUT of this thing. Its just life.
very possible
It's because they're boring.
I think this lo-fi look is so popular because it's the opposite of what we have now which is - technological damn near perfection that makes media ultimately disposable and meaningless.
The lo-fi thing gives people at least the feeling of some meaning, intention, imperfection, personality, something to hang onto. At least it's something.
For sure !
For me lo-fi aesthetics is just a by product of freedom. I did some crazy things with graphic 20 years ago, lo fi as hell, but way more creative than stuff I'm doing commercially today
Was talking to a friend recently about the feeling of reality becoming more and more important in an age where everything *feels* digital and worst of all, boring. Its why i started handing out polaroids for free at pride and after club nights, tbh. Much more fun than instagram and i get less existential dread.
Anyway great video as ever ^^
Thanks! I totally agree
"no one wants to edit on a 15-year-old mac"
my 2009 laptop running ableton live 4 is insulted
Respect
Loved the topic, and love the Trench shirt |-/
Thanks!! |-/
I think this is a kind of longing for the good old times when life was easier for many of us. I also miss the 80s90s as an older guy. The world felt real back then. So many things feel fake nowadays, fake photos, fake news... Social media made everything worse. What was ment to unite people separated them. That's why people love nostalgic things.
For sure a part of it!
Lo-fi has been with us for years in the music world - artists preferring to record on analog tape rather than 64 track Protools digital format, the increasing interest in vinyl records and cassettes.
Nostalgia has always been important in photography as well, that’s often why people take photos, to be reminded of places, people, events they attended.
As you point out, it also shows people that they can create art without hugely expensive equipment and it doesn’t have to be pristine and perfect to be interesting.
Long live Lo-fi imperfection!
Yeah for sure - I also play percussion and guitar and whilst I can't own a tube amp, whenever I get to use one I love it
My folks say the Zs remind them of themselves in the 70s! Return to form, rejecting the man, handmaking clothes, buying used, and wanting smaller houses.
I love your theory on lofi being a reflection of unease and solitude. I see it as a way to find some peace and quiet in this crazy world. Something human, when everything around is corporate.
Exactly!
Nice one, Hunter! In photography, I think it also relates to how "good" phone cameras became to the regular viewer. It seems that nowadays you only need to figure out composition, and the phone would do the rest for you where most people are comfortable enough with the result. All the punchy, very HDR-y and crisp looks, with the software help to denoise, etc. makes it very easy to come up with a "good" picture for the regular viewer.
And what I want to say with regular viewer, I mean anyone who does not own a camera not because of budget, but because "a phone is good enough".
What happens with this, is that photos end up looking the same. Everyone can snap a saturated, crisp with no blown out highlights or crushed shadows with a point and shoot in a phone. So nowadays grabbing a camera and lens combination of your choice suddenly gives your photos a "different look" to most that's out there.
I'm not sure this is exactly the reason (or even "a" reason), but it is for me. I currently enjoy very much the process of getting out with the camera (staying hydrated) and taking pictures with either some crushed shadow or blown out highlights in case I want to show "the other part" of the picture. Not everything needs to be in frame or visible.
It all depends on what you want to tell with it.
100% - I think people are getting tired of the very recognisable iPhone look with hdr skies that are all the exact same blue, and you only have to look at the app store to see how well the alternatives to the camera app like Halide and Zerocam are doing
Gotta say man you are one of my favorite channels right now. Everything you make is super well done and thought out. Always very inspiring. Glad to see you’re getting the success you deserve!
Thank you so much!!! It's all thanks to you watching :)
I think Mark Fisher's discussion of hauntology in his book "Ghosts of my Life" goes a long way towards explaining this phenomenon in the context of contemporary politics and society.
Added to my library list
Great insights that make a whole lotta sense.
Thanks!
Cracking video with clear and inspiring descriptions. After watching your videos I always feel my time was invested wisely. Hope your recovery is going well!
Thanks so much! That's great to hear :) Ankle is stiff but recovering well
Resurgence of early Japanese 90s animation could be the reason
I saw Akira in a cinema recently and was reminded of just how good it is
People are broke. They want to be on the edge, and going back to what’s in the drawer at mom’s house is available.
true
Gramma's house.
I think about this a lot and honestly I actively avoid the lofi and film grain tropes filmmakers use because I have a feeling when people look back it’s going to be very dated and like: “oh yeah this is from the 2020s because there’s loads of fake grain and hellation on everything.”
When in reality, he's talking about a small percentage of media and likely his own echo chamber. Womp Womp
@@dallassegno huh
maybe - or maybe people will collectively decide that the analogue look is what we prefer for some media. I wouldn't want to watch a nature documentary shot on 500T, but I'd prefer a comedy film that's got some character and noise.
also form and constraints actually promote creativity. Like a problem to solve with a given set of tools. So rather than 'go make something', it's write a sonnet with a gritty texture' or 'paint a 10 x 4 landscape with these 4 pigments '. Limitations can be interesting.
Getting creative is the fun part - if it's too easy, what's the point?
Im all in for the niatalgia astethic. Its such a vibe
I don't have the money for Lightroom or brand new camera gear. I got into photography this year with a couple Sony Mavica floppy drive cameras, and this week ordered a Nikon D80 from 2006. Sure, they're bigger and clunkier and with worse specs than a brand new mirrorless, but it also sets me away from the really snobby elitist photographer community. I know I'm a newbie and my skills aren't up to snuff, and I don't bother editing because I don't have the energy or skills. I shoot to have fun.
So many people forget that taking the photos is supposed to be the fun part and the JPGs are just a bonus!
@@huntercreatesthings Yep! I'm not going to bother with editing, so why clog up my storage with RAW files? I'm not trying to be a pro, if I can show this to my friends and family and they like it, I think I've accomplished my goal.
loved the video
Thanks!
I think one reason is what you got at is "real." We don't want perfect. I just saw a Levi ad shot on a 2000 digicam and it just FEELS like a regular person made it.
In getting back into photography and learning all about GAS, I realized quickly that the "best" camera was an ad. I just needed the one that did things the way I wanted to do them.
So you're really on the button on this one with lofi aesthetic, I think. I want to think past lofi girl, but I feel like it's in the neighborhood. Like vinyl records, and typewriters and all that, too.
For sure! Also old cars are cooler than ever - because they're more real. If we spend all day on a computer, why sit in one when we're on our way home?
David Bowie died in 2016, and personally I think that was a linchpin moment when everything started going to sh1t.
I remember it like it was yesterday
A good explanation and topic, thank you. I'm already struck by how much lofi there is in advertising, especially visuals for fashion brands. I think lofi will survive - it actually always has. Linocut art printing never died and never will. As technologies become 'redundant' we actually discover their truer value. Aside from the look, one of the values of digicams and film is constraint. It strips away decision paralysis because a more finite set of things can be done, pushing us to be more creative within that constraint. And we, rather than the tool, are a much bigger part of the output.
Believe it or not I tried linocut printing once. I was rubbish at it 😂
@@huntercreatesthings spoiler alert, I also grew up in NZ, so I pick believe it.
OK yeah, so some stuff over-sauces "constraint", we can agree now. So then this: is "lofi" in photography (digicam, film, etc) a useful constraint to boost creativity, or is that in itself some rationalisation BS because actually its about money in the end? (Just give me the gear)?
Bro's cooking with that spatula mic 😅
Of course
Love lofi and digicams! only legends would understand XD
You're gonna like the next video then...
Excuse my ignorance this has probably been discussed to death. What do you think about Lofi? Is it something that will hang in an art gallery or just something that is going to be shown on the internet. Will it stand the test of time hanging in a museum for 100 years? I am a huge fan of printing my images, just seems to be a finished piece of art to me. Anyway, you or someone here can give me their thoughts.
I'm possibly pointing out the obvious here but there has to be a multitude of reasons why lofi has remained popular. It is this variety of reasons that gives the genre robustness and longevity. People from different walks of life have different reasons to flit in and out of the genre, and to rediscover it in time, with the fire being kept alight by others in between.
Yes - that was my conclusion at the end of the video :)
@@huntercreatesthings So that's where I got that idea from xD
Hey big bro. Speaking of laptops, I’ve been thinking of getting a new one. But people keep making a big deal about how important RAM is for editing… What would you suggest?
16GB is definitely very helpful when you're editing! 8GB is absolute minimum
@@huntercreatesthings Thank you so much! You’re a life saver.
The last point is it. When brands take notice and start to flood the world with inauthenticity, we move on to something… other.
Who knows what's next
i just noticed how funny is that this guy makes videos for artists
is it funny?
@@huntercreatesthings funny in a nice way, bc most content creators do it for the "majority of the public" while you do it for other artists. and i love it.
Thank you :)
@@huntercreatesthings im the one that should be giving thanks here, you're the one creating content for free to the internet
"no one wants to edit on a 15 year old laptop" me on my windows 7 laptop using after effects 5.5 :(
I feel your pain
I shoot film because I can‘t afford a 2000 Dollar camera setup
I used to have the same problem - then I added up my yearly costs for film + darkroom chemistry and turns out I saved money by going mostly digital
@@huntercreatesthingsI calculatet a few weeks ago, I do dev for me and some friends and if I subtract that money from my spendings im at roughly 700€ for three years
Your clothes changes so many times back and forth it's like you are interviewing yourself or maybe I'm too high
Maybe I should do a video where I interrogate myself
Please iron your 21 pilots tshirt. Cool vid btw.
I didn't quit my job and become a UA-camr to start ironing band shirts
7:58 *Genocides, but yeah
Search No wave cinema movement
Looking into it as we speak
Trying to work out what that movie is you refer to that everyone should watch. I can't make out what you're saying. "June Pattoo" or something? A web search comes up empty.
Are you serious right now? It's "Dune part 2", you nimbocumulus
@@cabbelos Well, "dune" isn't pronounced "June." And it's cumulonimbus. :-)
As for Dune (not June), the films are decent, if not particularly memorable.