5 frames in Villargordo del Cabriel, Spain on Adox Scala 160

When I have shot in film commercials for television and music clips with an Aaton XTR camera and Super 16mm format, I have always used negative film to be able to balance the lighting of the different shots. But when it comes to photography I prefer to work with reversal film, whether it’s color or black and white. There is something special about the slides and I like to see them in a light box, or projected on a screen where you can see all the richness of the image.

Personally I think that black and white photography is the most suitable for portraits, and if it is reversal film much better. My first experience was in 2007, with the slides for the set design of the dance piece “Cotton Kids” by the Compagnie Sans Filtre, premiered at the Rote Fabrik in Zurich, Switzerland. On that occasion I worked in 6x7cm format with a Mamiya RZ67 and Kodak 320 TXP film, which was magnificently developed in the dr5 laboratory in the USA. It is a pity that the laboratory has now closed.

Here you have a selection of photos that I have taken in a couple of summers with a 35mm Pentax MX camera. It has been my return to reversal black and white photography, this time with Adox Scala 160 film that produces very good quality slides.

My dog Tristán and his friend Hannah.

They were developed at Photo Studio 13 in Germany (they have also closed their lab) and scanned at Carmencita Film Lab in Spain. The photos were taken with the Pentax SMC 55mm F2 lens and without a tripod.

Thanks for reading