Pictures worth more: Atlanta photographer turning performance into portraits and preserving analog art

In a world of digital everything, an Atlanta artist is slowing things down one photo at a time. 

Using a vintage camera and a process that turns heads in Piedmont Park, filmmaker and analog photographer Dan Rainer is setting out to keep vintage photography alive. 

For Rainer, the magic isn't just in the photo, it's in how it's made. 

"There's a deluge of images just bombarding us at every moment," Rainer told CBS News Atlanta. "I think focusing on intentionality, physicality, having a real physical object that has something of your essence kind of in it, that to me is like the magic of a physical, tactile portrait."

Rainer's camera turns a simple portrait into a performance. 

First, he frames the shot, then adjusts the exposure, disappears under the cloth, counts down, and finally reemerges to snap the photograph.

About a minute later, a photo appears in someone's hands.

"Physical media in general, it captures this magic that's kind of timeless," said Atlanta resident and park photography subject Vincent "Chenzy" Graziano.

Rainer said that's the point.

In a world where we can take a hundred photos in a second, he wants people to remember what it feels like to make one.

"I think seeing this out in public, people walking by, getting their picture taken, it kind of opens the world of possibilities, hopefully for new ways of self-expression through photography," Rainer said.

He says part of the magic is the mystery: the gears, the cloth, the waiting, the way people feel having their picture taken.

"You have to stand there. He's checking all the techno gizmos. I don't know what any of it's called, but he really takes his time to make sure it comes out just right," Graziano said. 

Every time someone asks how it works, Rainer sees a chance to keep the art form alive.

"I think people seeing this camera, asking questions, talking about it, seeing how it's not that different from digital photography, and it's something they could pursue, whether it be getting a camera like this or just picking up a 35mm film camera, like a point and shoot from the 90s," Rainer said. 

To him, analog photography isn't just about the picture; it's about the moment it takes to make it. 

Rainer said he makes the trip from Duluth to Piedmont Park nearly every day, sharing the art of analog photography one portrait at a time.