Doriyan Coleman Teaches Analog Photography in a Digital World

When Doriyan Coleman hands out instant cameras to young students, he’s giving many a taste of photography that they haven’t experienced before.

“Most of these kids, their first exposure to photography was an iPhone, so there’s no buttons. It’s just a slick screen,” Coleman says. “I think film is interesting to people because you have the tangible dials. It is a connected process with you, your mind, your hands and the tool.”

Now, as University Circle’s artist in residence, he teaches all-ages classes centered around analog photography, where students use instant cameras that print and develop pictures in their hands.

The self-taught photographer picked up a digital camera about eight years ago and published his first book earlier this year. Where We Call Home collects 60 photos centered in Cleveland, plus a few shots in Columbus and Chicago.

In his roles as an artist and teacher, Coleman has seen a rise in interest not in the newest camera equipment, but also backward in time. Earlier models of film cameras and discontinued film have big audiences among photographers looking for specific film grains and character to their shots. Beyond film photography, compact digital cameras of the 1990s and 2000s have also resurged in popularity for Gen Z photographers seeking nostalgic styles of photos that can be taken without using smartphones.

“A lot of manufacturers have switched to, ‘How do we get the cleanest, most lifelike thing possible?’” Coleman says. “You’re not always trying to do that with a painting or a photograph. Where one person might see a restriction, somebody else sees character.” 

The physicality of film draws Coleman to the format — and he aims to share it with students, who otherwise largely live in worlds of selfies and Snapchats.

“Art is a very human expression, and it can’t go away,” he says. “I think most of all, you have an artifact aspect in an age of streaming and technology and AI, where I think that's actually going to become more valuable.”

READ MORE: Cleveland Logs Off in a Growing Analog Movement

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