Are disposable cameras still sold?

BarcelonaResistance. Relentless. War economy. This was the landscape of the Joma photography store, a classic in Barcelona's Gràcia neighborhood, with the rapid arrival of digital technologies in a world, ours, so subject to technological evolution. But there was a click, never better said, like the click of the old shutter releases on analog cameras. And the click is 100% related to changing times, changing trends, the emergence of social media. Quite a paradox, indeed: analog technology has re-emerged with force precisely thanks to the advancement of times, the dictatorship of social media, the desire to experiment, to tell different stories, to position oneself in this world with enthusiasm and personality. vintage.

On Bonavista Street, next to Torrent de l'Olla, Foto Joma was founded in the early 1970s by Jordi Molina, the stepfather of Mario González, the current owner. A full-service photography shop, the store offers everything from photo development, which was still dominated by black and white at the time, to the sale of all types of photographic equipment: cameras, accessories, photographic paper, trolleys, enlargers, as well as the chemicals needed to perform traditional analog development in darkrooms, so remembered by professional photographers with decades of experience behind them. Over the following decades, the business thrived—they even opened two more shops—at a time when fierce competition from large retailers didn't yet exist, and the fascinating world of photography was the preserve of local shops. At one time, there were four employees at the store on Bonavista Street. Today, it's just Mario, who joined the business in 2000 to help his stepfather.

The turning point came with the boom in digital photography. At first, they embraced it, mainly because it was the right thing to try. But it didn't pay off. Why? The equipment quickly becomes obsolete, and it's not worth buying and then reselling digital cameras that have been overshadowed by the latest developments on the market. The solution? Absolute specialization in what they've always been strong at: analogue. Buying and selling old cameras, of course, but also with a new and surprising phenomenon that has injected new life into them: young people's fascination with analogue technology, which they use creatively to build their own brand and personality and use their photos as a distinctive showcase on social media.

An example? Disposable cameras. Those we used to buy when we went on trips and developed upon our return, eager to see what we'd find. They can cost between 18 and 25 euros. Customers who buy them also take their photos to Joma to be developed, but the vast majority don't want them on paper, but rather in digital format. The machine develops the cart, and with a program like WeTransfer, the customer easily receives the result. Mario then has it in hand. The price is totally affordable: 10 euros.

Sale of carts

A very similar concept is that of the customer who buys shopping carts to give new life to their father's or grandfather's analog camera. Out of every ten such customers, only two or three want enlargements with photographic paper. For the vast majority, the digital format already suits them. They want the photos for various professional projects or to post on their social media. What's a shopping cart worth? They used to be very cheap—between 3 and 5 euros—because there were surpluses that had been locked up in warehouses and no one wanted them. Today, the big brands have already noticed the increase in demand. Mario sells the shopping carts for around 12 euros.

What other services does the store offer? ID photos, irreducible, still necessary for updating all types of documentation. Format conversion. From the old Super 8 mm and Super 16 mm—the old kings of home recordings—to digital format. The same with VHS and Beta. And with the old photographic negatives that almost every family has at home, and which one day fall into your hands and you're excited to enlarge to see what your parents and grandparents photographed decades ago. Recovering what's forgotten, rescuing memory.