During the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Frank Ledezma and his wife Jennyfer Gramajo pulled into the parking lot of the Jack in the Box on the corner of 3rd and Indiana, fully protected in PPE. It was a cash-for-goods deal.
Although it likely resembled a shady exchange, the buyer wasn’t looking for anything illicit, just a few rolls of 35mm film for his vintage camera. Ledezma and Gramajo would regularly deliver rolls of photographic film to sustain their business, East LA Film Shop, during the throes of the pandemic. Because the film shortage was so dire, the couple would sell on apps like OfferUp or deliver to homes directly.
“That’s what helped our shop. We usually had everything in stock. And everybody else was just sold out,” Ledezma recalled from the first few months of operation of his family business, East LA Film Shop.
Ledezma and Gramajo co-own the store at 3543 1st St., which has served analog photography lovers in an era when digital photography is more accessible than ever.
Every day, customers drop off tiny canisters of their favorite film types, like Fujifilm, Ilford, Kodak, or Cinestill. Within a day or two, the lab emails customers high-resolution scans of their images.
Ledezma is new to owning a business but comes from a photography background. Before the pandemic, the 37-year-old would shoot weddings and quinceñeras with his father and print and frame the photos for clients. Once the shelter-in-place orders were issued, Ledezma took a risk and chose to buy a bundle of photo equipment, film included, from a client.
“He gave us a $1,000 bundle, and then from there, people started passing by, and they’d always say, ‘Oh, you sell film?’ Ledezma said of pedestrians who’d walk by their store on 1st. ”So they used to buy a roll here or there. And it took off from there.”
Ledezma credits the period in 2020 to an increase in demand for film development.
“I think a lot of people were just stuck at home, they’d have no work, no school. So a lot of them picked it up as a hobby,” Ledezma theorized, saying that the combination of seasoned shooters and an influx of new photographers together helped his business. “A lot of new people came in just because there was nothing else to do.”
While the lab also provides other photographic services, such as passport portraits, digital image printing, and VHS digitization, the owners said film developing and scanning are its bread and butter.
“I think it’s nostalgia. They want to do what their parents did. Or if you’re already a digital photographer, and you feel like you’re missing something, maybe shooting film kind of breaks you out of that funk,” Ledezma said.
The duo hosted a community photowalk earlier this year that started at the shop, walked around Evergreen Cemetery, and ended at El Mercadito, a block away from their lab.
“It was amazing,” Gramajo said. “I talked to some people that came from San Diego or from other areas just for the walk.”
“Everybody was shooting,” Ledezma recalled with pride in his voice.
Both Ledezma and Gramajo said film photography is crucial to their business and something they do as a hobby a few times a week.
“It’s cool that it’s still being kept alive. Shooting film is more thoughtful. Digital, you can just shoot a lot and hopefully you got one. Film, you got to think about it. You gotta take your time,” Ledezma said.
Xavier Delgado, an Alhambra resident who visited the lab on 1st St., stepped into the store on a rainy afternoon to drop off a roll of Fujifilm. Delgado has shot film for years but recently fell back in love with the medium and was leaving with two fresh Kodak rolls in hand to use that week.
“I think it’s a fantastic thing. It’s nice to see people coming to see that there’s more to East LA than just whatever they see in a movie with a sepia-toned filter,” Delgado joked. “It’s cool to see something come up from the community and bring people to experience this community in different ways. I’m all about it.”
Gramajo said that when older customers poke their heads into the shop, they’re often surprised to learn that they are actually developing film. Many customers bring old film canisters they never developed to see what treasures might lie on the roll.
“We do get those kinds of people from the community who go back to their house and look for their old cameras,” Gramajo said. The co-owner said they even go out of their way to help troubleshoot faulty cameras that customers bring in. “We put in a battery, and then we’ll see if the camera actually grabs the film. Then we’ll show them how to use them because a lot of them forget how to even use those cameras.”
Customer Mitra Khayyam lives in Lincoln Heights and comes to the shop to develop her 35mm and 120mm film. Khayyam considers the owners friendly and said she values spending her money in a small, local business.
“It definitely feels like you’re working with a family business versus some other places where you don’t know the people you’re dropping your film off to,” Khayyam said. “I love that they’re here on the Eastside and do a lot of photo meetups and other programming. They bring the community together.”
Ledezma agreed that the local relationships he and his wife have formed really set his business apart.
“East LA is more like a family. I used to live in Koreatown, and everybody was just off on their own. But here, it feels like family, like everybody knows each other. So it’s a good feeling to serve the people in this area because you feel bonded to them,” Ledezma said.