Nostalgia and passion fuel a young couple who run an old-school photo lab

“It all started as a little passion project,” says Fabriccio Díaz, 28, who with his wife Lucía Ramírez, 25, runs the only fully functional photographic film development lab in Central America from their apartment in Guatemala City.

“We now have over 60 customers a month and have developed over 800 rolls this year alone,” he adds.

Arca Film Lab has been in high demand this year and is the only photographic film development lab in Central America that develops any type of analog photographic film, which involves the rather complicated process of developing positives in a process known as E- 6.

Fabriccio, who studied cinematography, explains that the great inaccessibility of high-quality film development services in Central America gave him the crucial first push to learn how to develop his first film.

“When we started experimenting and developing film in our apartment, friends started asking us to develop film for them and everything kind of took off,” recalls Lucía.

And so, Arca Film Lab was born in September 2023 as a simple Instagram page offering film development services in Guatemala.

The couple taught themselves most of the skills needed to develop the film by watching YouTube videos and contacting other film labs internationally for advice.

“We were surprised that so many people answered our questions. Many veterans in the world of photo development helped us by sharing their experiences and tricks. We are really grateful for that,” says Fabriccio.

Fabriccio and Lucía’s love for photography is not limited to film development. The couple also organizes “photo walks” in which a group of people gather together in Antigua, Guatemala’s old city center, to take pictures and experiment with old analog cameras.

For young analog photography enthusiasts like Iván Ortiz, 22, shooting photos with a camera that’s older than him gives him something that modern cameras can’t compete with.

“It’s like being nostalgic for a generation we were never part of,” he tells the BBC.

Iván says that older people don’t always get the latest buzz about old cameras and film. “They just don’t understand our perspective,” he explains.

“We live in a world where everything is digital and fast. Through analog photography, I have to make conscious decisions about my photos and focus only on the act of photography. And the best part of it is that you have something physical file afterwards, and not just another data file,” he adds.

Having physical photos to keep is also something that Steven López from the US points out as an advantage of analog photography.

The 33-year-old is traveling through Central America to document the last traces of Mayan culture and always carries a 35mm analog camera with him.

“Photography and especially analogue photography is just the best way to document and experience cultures. Every time I come back from traveling and get the developed film it’s like Christmas!” he tells the BBC.

The community of analog photography enthusiasts in Central America may be growing rapidly, but the challenges are greater than elsewhere.

“It’s really hard to get analog cameras here, and it’s even harder to keep them in good condition,” explains 26-year-old Ronald Ottoniel, who went to the photo walk to buy new rolls of film and return others to be done. developed.

And there are other obstacles.

Fabriccio and Lucía explain that the process of purchasing and importing the chemicals needed to develop the positive film has been extremely complicated, because the import of these chemicals is closely monitored by the state and requires special permits, which has made it an ordeal painfully long.

“A lot of other labs don’t offer E-6 processing just because it’s so complicated to import the chemicals,” says Fabriccio.

Their business may be expanding, but Fabriccio and Lucía are determined to make sure it doesn’t lose the personal touch and passion that inspired it in the first place.

Lucía explains how sometimes customers “put some sweets in the packages they send us and sometimes we send a handwritten note”.

“It is important for us that this is not a mass production business, but every customer [treated as] an individual,” she adds.

All over the world, photo labs use huge machines that develop film almost completely automatically, but in Fabriccio and Lucía’s simple apartment, the process is very “hands-on”.

For color and positive film (E-6), the temperature of the chemicals and the time the film is exposed to them must be just right, otherwise the entire film will turn out bad.

“The beginning was definitely not easy with this whole process, but after developing over 800 films, these processes come as second nature to us,” recalls Fabriccio.

“But the first time we developed the positive films, the E-6 process, we were very nervous because we had invested so much in the chemicals and the roll. But when it turned out well and we were able to see these vivid colors of the positive film it’s always very exciting “, he adds.

Another indispensable member of the Arca Film Lab is Toto, the four-month-old cat who, according to Fabriccio and Lucía, is responsible for quality control and is brought around throughout the development process.

The rolls of developed film are then transferred from the kitchen to the bathroom, as it is the dustiest space in the house.

There they dry, to be scanned later on a high-resolution Nikon scanner, which Fabriccio says is the highest-resolution film scanner in Central America.

Fabriccio and Lucía have now expanded to El Salvador, where they regularly collect and sell films.

The young couple remain ambitious and in the future, they say they hope to build a strong relationship with CineStill and Eastman Kodak and expand into motion picture film development, which will include a complicated process known as ECN-2. .

“It is my dream to revitalize the classic cinematography scene here in Central America! We have so much expertise and enthusiasm of talent to offer the world. (…) with Arca Film Lab we have started a movement that we want to push further and further”, says Fabriccio.

All photos by Fritz Pinnow and subject to copyright.