The 2016 Throwback Trend

I don’t really follow trends or join Instagram challenges. Yet, I couldn’t help but noticed the wave of 2016 throwback posts recently. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to any of them – but the more “Now and Then” posts I saw, the more I started reflecting on my own life in 2016.

It was a very significant year in my life – I got married. With our 10th wedding anniversary approaching, I’ve been revisiting many memories lately: going to dance classes to prepare for our wedding dance, finding the most romantic setting for our “I do” and many other special moments. 

But beyond the wedding, I realised that I couldn’t clearly remember anymore where I went, what I photographed, what I wrote about or what occupied my mind at the time.

So I did what I always do whenever I need answers that are tied to dates: I consulted my Lightroom catalogue. It’s the best record keeper of almost anything that has happened in my life. Slightly crazy, but it works every time. Such is the life of a photographer, I suppose.

I filtered my archive for all photographs from 2016 and found myself scrolling through hundreds of memories.

Our wedding took place at the beginning of March, so those photographs were pretty much “on top of the pile”. I do look through them every once in a while, so seeing them again felt familiar rather than surprising. We left on our honeymoon shortly thereafter, so as I kept scrolling, images from our epic trip to Vietnam were starting to fill the screen. And that was when 2016 grabbed my full attention.

This trip was the first time I shot on another Fujifilm camera alongside my X100s and seeing the photograph of the X-T1 wrapped in a bow (below) triggered a flood of memories: preparing for a backpacking adventure in a far away and foreign country, deciding what camera gear was sensible and practical to take, the fact that at the time I was still shooting on Nikon gear professionally, how my X100s was my little treasure for my personal photography… and the generous offer from a good friend who offered me his new Fujifilm X-T1 & XF56mmF1.2 for our trip. 

Released in January 2014, the X-T1 had already made some serious waves in the global photography community by March 2016. I vividly remembered the many conversations we had with our friends around this new kid on the block and how Fujifilm was establishing itself in the photography market. Fujifilm was hip and trendy and it was a real privilege to document our trip on that camera. 

When I returned home, four weeks and over 5000 photographs later, it was incredibly hard to hand the camera back to his rightful owner. The tactile shooting experience had made a lasting impression on me and the result was a large collection of travel memories in beautiful Fujifilm colours (you can also read “We’d call it Home Industry” and “Sunrise at the Fish Market” for more about this trip). Every time thereafter when I picked up a camera from another brand, I missed that experience and those colours.

When the X-T2 was released in September of that year I knew what to do. I joined so many other professional photographers who had gone before me and made a complete system switch. A switch that would shape my career far more than I realised at the time. Amongst many other milestones, it resulted in me joining Fujifilm’s global ambassador programme the following year as the first female photographer from the African continent.

The rest, as they say, is history…

I have to say thanks to whoever sparked this throwback trend. I had almost forgotten that 2016 had marked the launch of the X-T2 and was such an exciting time for Fujifilm as a brand.

So many people all over the world shared similar experiences and I would love to hear your stories. Let me know in the comments where you were at the time, what you were shooting on in 2016 and if or when you joined the Fujifilm community. I can’t wait to read all about it!

---

Enjoyed this content? Consider subscribing so you can receive a notification email the next time I publish an article:

---

A few more memories of me in 2016: 

• Deep thoughts I had in 2016… https://blog.nathalieboucry.com/homeishome/
• What I read in 2016… https://blog.nathalieboucry.com/when-breath-becomes-air/
• A blog my husband and I started in 2016… https://sidebysidecaptures.tumblr.com