Helder Matias and James Lai first met while working together at West Camera on Queen St. W. In the last two or so years, the pair started talking about opening their own film lab — and so Memento Film Lab was born.

The store, which opened in June 2023, offers physical and digital film prints, photo development and even has certain cameras for sale.

"A lot of places in North America, the film labs died out. Whereas we still had West Camera and Downtown Camera, all these great labs that managed to go through the slump," Lai says.

"And we got our photos developed there. We learned through them and that's how we got here today."

The store can perhaps best be described as having an open concept kitchen-style. You can see most of the processing equipment and cameras right when you walk in.

One of the rooms is actually a gallery. Each month Matias and Lai develop photos from those in the community around a given theme. 

The film development process itself only takes about 20 minutes from taking the roll out of the camera to getting physical prints.

"We want this place to be the go-to film lab in Toronto," Matias told blogTO, "And I think we're working our way towards that, and people can feel that when they come in here."

Most of the processing equipment required to process film is no longer manufactured, but they were able to get most of it through companies that sell refurbished models, a lab that shut down earlier this year and what they say is a robust film photography community in Toronto.

According to Matias, some of their equipment is among the last in Toronto. 

Their dark room, which they called a work-in-progress, consists of two processors, one for colour and one for black and white. Lai told me that when they first acquired the equipment, neither was working — so they had to cobble together the parts to get the machines in order.

There's also their wet lab, where they develop colour photography and certain prints.

So far, they say, the reception to Memento has been very positive. While a film photography store in 2023 may seem anachronistic to a lot of people, Matias points out that he worked at West Camera for five years, and during that time he "saw how busy that place got."

Matias and Lai kept talking about the strong and passionate photography community in Toronto — and through Memento, they're able to see much more of the city than they would otherwise.

"We can get an idea of the pulse of the city. If it's Caribana, you can see Caribana. We see the protests a lot right now," Lai says. "You just feel what's happening in the city vicariously through the eyes of the photographers."

Memento Film Lab is at 216 Ossington Ave.