“It all started as a small passion project,” says Fabriccio Díaz, 28, who, along with his wife Lucía Ramírez, 25, runs the only fully operational photo film developing lab in Central America from his apartment in Guatemala City.
“We now have more than 60 clients a month and have developed more than 800 rolls this year alone,” he adds.
Arca Film Lab has been in high demand this year and is the only photo film developing lab in Central America that develops all types 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 unavailability of high-quality film development services in Central America gave him the first decisive impetus 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 reaching out to other film labs abroad 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, however. The couple also organizes “photo walks” where groups of people gather in Antigua, the old center of Guatemala City, to take photos and experiment with old analog cameras.
For young analog photography enthusiasts like Iván Ortiz, 22, taking photos with a camera that’s older than he is gives something that modern cameras can’t compete with.
“It’s like we’re nostalgic for a generation we never belonged to,” he tells the BBC.
Iván says that older people are not always interested in old cameras and films. “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 solely on the act of taking a photo. And the best part about it is that you have something physical afterwards, and not just another data file,” he adds.
Having physical photos to hold is also something Steven López from the US highlights as an advantage of analog photography.
The 33-year-old travels across Central America to document the last traces of Mayan culture and always carries a 35mm analog camera with him.
“Photography, especially analogue photography, is simply the best way to document and experience cultures. Every time I come back from a trip 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 very hard to get analog cameras here, and even harder to get them in good condition,” explains 26-year-old Ronald Ottoniel, who went on a photo walk to buy new rolls of film and hand in others to be developed.
And there are other obstacles.
Fabriccio and Lucía explain that the process of buying and importing the chemicals needed to develop the positive film was extremely complicated because the import of these chemicals is under strict state control and requires special permits, which made it an excruciatingly long ordeal.
“A lot of other labs don’t offer E-6 processing just because it’s so complicated to get the chemicals in,” says Fabriccio.
Their business may be expanding, but Fabriccio and Lucía are determined to ensure they don’t lose the personal touch and passion that inspired it.
Lucía explains that sometimes clients “put sweets in the packages they send us, and sometimes we send them a handwritten note”.
“It is important to us that this is not mass production, but that it is every client [treated as] an individual,” she adds.
All over the world, photo labs use large machines that develop film almost completely automatically, but in the modest apartment of Fabriccio and Lucia, the process is very “hands-on”.
For color and positive (E-6) film, the chemical temperature and exposure time of the film must be correct, otherwise the entire roll of film will turn out poorly.
“The beginning was definitely not easy with this whole process, but after developing over 800 rolls of film these processes became like second nature to us,” recalls Fabriccio.
“But when we first developed the positive films, the E-6 process, we were so nervous because we invested so much in chemicals and roll. But when it turned out well and we could see these vibrant colors the positive film is always very exciting,” he adds.
Another indispensable member of the Arca Film Lab is Toto, a four-month-old cat who, according to Fabriccio and Lucía, is in charge of quality control and tumor control throughout the development process.
The developed rolls of film are then transferred from the kitchen to the bathroom, as this is a dust-free space in the house.
There they dry, to be scanned later in 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 film rolls.
The young couple remain ambitious and in the future, they say, hope to establish a strong relationship with CineStill and Eastman Kodak and expand into film roll development, which would involve a complicated process known as ECN-2.
“My dream is to revitalize the classic cinema scene here in Central America! We have so much talent and enthusiasm to offer the world. (…) with Arca Film Lab we started a movement that we want to push further and further,” says Fabriccio.
All photos by Fritz Pinnow and subject to copyright.
