NEWS: Down the Road by Jim Grey Updates Annual List of Film Photography Blogs To Follow

Blogs are not dead and Jim Grey from Down the Road gives us an idea of how many active ones write about analogue photography. In his recently published annual update of “Film Photography Blogs You Should Follow”, Jim lists no less than 104 blogs that are alive and well (and meet the list criteria) in 2023.

Blogs make it to the list if they are about film photography, have an RSS feed, allow comments, post at least a few times a year, and are known to Mr. Grey.

Jim started the list in 2014 with a total of 42 blogs.

“I’m always looking for new kinds of content to publish that’s in my site’s wheelhouse, so the 2014 list was a trial balloon to see how my audience responded. But also, based on the comments I saw on the other sites I followed, I wasn’t sure my audience knew about all of those other sites. I hoped the sites on my list would gain some new readers, and perhaps they’d mention my list on their site and I’d gain some new readers from them.” – Jim Grey, Down the Road author

I asked the Down the Road author more about changes or trends he’s noticed over the years within the list. Jim responds by noting that the first big change is that it’s more than doubled in number.

“I observe that blogging isn’t as popular as it used to be overall, but film photographers buck that trend.” – Jim Grey, Down the Road author

A few blogs have fallen away from the list since the beginning. This year alone, 15 blogs were removed from the list, either from inactivity or the sites were deleted. However, an equal amount of new or reinstated blogs were added back to keep the number the same as the year before.

“Looking back at my 2014 list, I see a whole bunch of lovely sites that have gone dark. I miss them!” – Jim Grey, Down the Road author

The most interesting trend is the general change in topics written about by the film photography bloggers featured on Down the Road’s annual list. Jim says the focus has meandered away from being centered on cameras and towards other parts of the process.

“In 2014, most sites were created by camera collectors who were primarily interested in and wrote about gear. They shared photographs they made with their cameras mostly to show how well the cameras were working. Today, I see sites much more focused on films and lenses, and sites about a particular artistic aesthetic in film photography. I seldom see a new site that’s straight up about gear anymore. I don’t mind this change a bit; it’s been interesting to observe this shift.” – Jim Grey, Down the Road author

If you are here, chances are you like reading blogs about photography. So, to see if there are any more to add to your reading list, head over to Down the Road’s post here. Comment on the article if you know of any film blogs that might be missing from the list!

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