Some may argue that analog photography is a dying art, but chat to any film devotee and they’ll point you towards a thriving community of independent photo labs and happy snappers keeping the medium alive. Just take creative couple Mikaela and James Barker, for example. Together, they run Thicc Boi Film, a rather novel business comprising an online store and a film vending machine in Raine Square, Perth.
The duo first hatched plans to dispense rolls of film and reusable compact cameras during the pandemic. At the time, Mikaela had just been stood down from her retail job, and James, a cinematographer, was working from home. To cope with the changes, and to “stay sane”, the pair threw themselves into a passion project. “Film photography is like therapy for us,”…