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For one night only in Manchester this week, Harry Styles went analogue.
The reasoning behind his no-digital-photography stance at his Manchester Co-Op Arena concert probably had as much to do with the concert being recorded for Netflix as it did for a live-in-the-moment aesthetic.
But the 20,000 fans were told not to get their phones out – or risk being ejected – and instead record their memories on the Styles-branded disposable cameras.
Kosmo Foto was one of several outlets to write about this in the past week. The decision no doubt led to bumper weeks for film processing labs across the land, but no doubt many furrowed brows when the files winged their way to their owners inboxes.
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Disposables are great for capturing casual memories on days out, boat trips, festivals and night-time adventures (as long as they have a flash attached of course). They are a practical choice when you might run the risk of breaking or losing a more expensive camera. They are infinitely better than having no camera at all.
But, as anyone who's taken one of this into a concert can attest, the humble disposable camera absolutely sucks at taking pictures of anything further away than a couple of metres at your average gig. Smartphones have sophisticated exposure systems that can keep the lens open long enough to register a decent enough picture in the dim light of an arena even if it ends up being blurry from camera shake. (Note: I've been taking pictures at concerts, professionally in some cases, for the last 20 years, so I have bit of experience to draw on.)
Disposables have a single shutter speed. Unless you have a lot of light (think sunshine), then the camera just can't register an image. Harry Styles fans are learning that the hard way.
Stories of blank frame after blank frame have popped up on social channels like Reddit – one fan showed BBC Radio 2 her massively underexposed shots after getting her prints back.
The deluge of disposables that will have hit Britain's photo labs in the weeks after the gig will no doubt be a welcome burst of trade; but each of these single-use cameras adds plastic and e-waste to the UK's landfills. 10,000 in one go feels like a backwards step.
People are being encouraged to put their phones down and enjoy hobbies like photography without a screen getting in the way. Some who will have been taken by the novelty of the Harry Styles camera – shooting film in 2026, no less – will be hit with a disappointment that may prevent them ever dabbling again.
This isn't Styles' first foray into analogue tech – one version of his new album 'Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally' came with a branded reusable camera. That's the perfect camera you should take to an outdoor festival to take memories of the day (and the night, if you've remembered to bring batteries for the flash). It's a much smarter link-up between the cachet of analogue tech and pop memorabilia, certainly a lot smarter than giving 10,000 pairs of fans a camera they might not have ever used before and who thought they might be getting a film's worth of pictures rivalling their phone's.
Some of the cameras from Styles' show are now popping up on eBay. That seems like a much smarter choice if you ask me.