21st Century Technology and its Influences: HUJI Cam

The HUJI Cam App and its Influences

    With the invention of the iPhone came the natural invention of a variety of apps, providing us with a means of entertaining ourselves, learning new information, or simply making life easier. As the features of the iPhone have evolved, new apps have been invented to keep up with the trends. One of the trendiest apps today is the HUJI Cam app, designed to work with the iPhone’s camera to create unique and nostalgically beautiful photos.

One feature that Apple developers have consistently improved upon throughout the years is the iPhone’s camera. The accessibility of having a high quality camera available on your cell phone has led to an age where it is typical to capture all but the most crucial memories and moments simply using one’s smartphone. This normalization of capturing life through a phone as well as the popularization of social media has led to the rise of Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms today centered on sharing unique images.

As Instagram increased in popularity, so did photo editing apps. Many apps were released that were designed to airbrush and touch up images (e.g. FaceTune) and plenty of others were offered which provide the user with aesthetically pleasing filters which can be applied to a photo to achieve a unique, artistic look. Naturally, these apps have only increased in popularity along with the platform they are used for. Many of these apps, such as VSCO, can create visually stunning and professional looking photographs.

However, with technological advances comes a sense of nostalgia, a strange longing and even desire for a taste of the lifestyle of yesteryear. As modern fashion began to shift towards 90s nostalgia, so did the trends for photo taking styles. This popularized the film camera aesthetic, which is currently trending across Instagram. This aesthetic involves lens flares, discoloration, grain and other textures, film burn effects, and more with the intention of capturing photos that look as though they had just been printed out of an old Polaroid camera.

Enter HUJI Cam. Its motto is “Just Like The Year 1998”. The name itself is a play on FUJIFilm disposable cameras, which were incredibly popular until the popularization of smartphone cameras. It is reminiscent of a time when people had to resort to low quality photographs if they wanted to take pictures without fear of their expensive digital cameras getting broken or stolen. Upon opening the app, the user is presented with a screen designed to look similar to these disposable cameras.

HUJI Cam App                                                       FUJIFilm Disposable Cameras

The user can then point and shoot the camera. The app takes a couple of seconds to “develop” the photo, and automatically applies effects which make the photo look vintage and unique. Here are a couple of examples using the automatic filter:

Before                                                              After

Before                                                           After

HUJI Cam rejects the clear, crisp, and true to life colors and aesthetic that we have grown accustomed to with our easy access to professional grade cameras and reminds the viewer of a simpler time, when we had to point and shoot and wait for results. The fact that the filter cannot be edited or otherwise adjusted speaks to this. This trend has been popping up all over social media - a quick Instagram search for the hashtag “HUJICam” yields hundreds of thousands of results. The distinctive filter and watermark are frequently seen throughout social media.

So what does this mean for the future? Will the HUJICam trend die out, or will it continue to grow and evolve? Based on the current popularity of nostalgic fashion in all realms, I believe this trend will keep growing. Polaroid instant printing cameras have already made a comeback, so perhaps disposable cameras will be on the rise again. However, I think the most likely scenario is more copycat apps. HUJICam perfectly blends trendy aesthetics and nostalgia with the ease and convenience of iPhone camera access, and I think the modern component is a huge reason as to why the app has been so successful. I think it’s possible that due to the popularity of the app, maybe future iPhone cameras will come with a “disposable camera effect” feature or something similar to go along with the super successful Portrait mode.