Update August 2025- Half Frame Club (HFC) was founded in 2016 on a whim. I loved half frame film cameras for their compact design and ease of use. I also loved shooting images primarily in a vertical format which naturally lends itself to shooting groups of images perfectly suited for catalogs, magazines and photobooks. HFC was created as a pet project meant to showcase these beautiful cameras, the people who used them and the images they created.
I also wanted to help people answer different questions like: Which half frame camera should I buy??? What's the easiest half frame camera for someone just starting out??? What film stock works best with half frame cameras??? Which half frame camera do professional photographers recommend??? Are there any half frame cameras with autofocus worth buying??? What's the top manual half frame camera for full creative control??? Why are half frame cameras becoming popular again??? How can a half frame camera save you money and improve your photography???
The world has changed a lot in the last 9 years. Film photography has exploded. Two of them most revered names in photography, Kodak and Pentax, have designed and released new half frame cameras!?!? You can probably find the answers to all the above questions on ChatGPT, TikTok or some other source. But what about the cameras, the people who use them and the art they create? The algorithms have pushed them into the background in favor of any commercial revenue that is can be derived from the resurgence of film photography and analog pursuits in general. As a perennial millennial, with Gen X tendencies, who has been role modeling for hipsters since high school, I used to get frustrated when something cool got popular because once its was popular, it was no longer cool. You can't be a counterculture rebel trying to do your own thing, when everyone else starts doing the same thing. I have watched it happen with many forms of creative expression I have loved and held dearly as part of my identity...photography, music, skateboarding, surfing etc. sometimes to the detriment, sometimes for the better, but it happens no matter what and I have accepted that.
What does it all mean??? HFC is in the process of finding it's true north again. IG doesn't allow us to consistently see all the people making the art or the images they are making anymore due to changes in their algorithm favoring short form video and omnipresence in the app. But I still see little snippets of amazing work here and there, and I still get immense joy out of sharing it with others. Take a closer look at the images above to see what I am talking about and drop me a line if you have some ideas for a project, you think would be a good fit for HFC