While Everything Goes AI, DFW Creatives Are Falling Back in Love With Film

Aqua RichJo | September 26, 2026

You take the picture. You wait for it to develop. Then you hold the result in your hand. This weekend, PolaCon is giving North Texas photographers a place to share that experience—and learn what else instant film can do.

The Instant Film Society’s convention runs through Sunday, September 27, with events in Dallas and Denton. It opened Friday with a photo walk at the State Fair of Texas. Workshops, demonstrations, a swap meet and time to connect with other photographers round out the weekend.

What keeps photographers reaching for film?

Instant photography makes every frame a choice. Film costs money, the number of shots is limited, and the finished picture is an object someone can keep or give away. For a photographer used to shooting dozens of digital images and choosing one later, that process can change how they approach a subject.

But why DFW photographers choose it is their story to tell. Is it nostalgia? Creative control? The pleasure of making something physical in a world of endlessly scrolling images? PolaCon is a chance to ask working artists and first-time participants directly.

It is also a chance to ask who gets access. A camera is only the start of the expense; film, workshop fees and travel can add up. What would make analog photography easier for a young artist to try? Which local galleries show the work—and which photographers have yet to be invited into those spaces?

Put the artists in the frame

No Chill News wants to follow the creative process, from someone’s first photo walk to the moment a print develops. We also want to build a gallery that gives Black, queer and emerging photographers room to show their work and speak about it in their own words.

PolaCon’s schedule provides the gathering place. The deeper story belongs to the people making images: what they notice, what they spend to practice their craft, and what they want North Texas to see.

When a photograph becomes something you can hold, whose work gets held onto?

Reporting basis: KERA’s September 24 preview and the Instant Film Society’s event information. No Chill News has not independently interviewed PolaCon attendees or documented this weekend’s events.