Lights in the Darkness – My Low Light Film Photography 1957-2002 – By Jordi Fradera

I find the night and the darkness are magical to photograph. When I’ve taken analogue photos in lower light, I have always been doubtful about the result, but that adds emotion to the process.

Since I started photographing as an amateur, one of my objectives was night photography but I did not know its difficulty and techniques. In 1957-1958, together with my friend Enrique, we did several “night safaris” in order to photograph the night in Barcelona. A Contaflex, a Leica IIIf, a Leica M3 and a 1940s tripod seemed enough for the adventure. Then, at Enrique’s house, we developed the Kodak Plus X – 21 DIN and made the copies on paper, rarely the result was the desired, but achieving an image made us happy.

In the cover photo (scanned from a paper photo) you can see how we looked under a lamppost on a cold and lonely night, accompanied by José who was walking us with his car.

Now, 63 years later, both retired, Enrique from his work as a professional photographer and I as an industrial engineer, I have compiled from my collection the photos that I define as “Lights in the Darkness”. Between negatives and paper copies, I have found more than 100 images, some of which (the most significant and varied) illustrate this article, not only are they “nocturnal” in the city, but some other images are sneaked in according to the title of the article.

The poor quality of the originals, the use of noisy Kodak Gold 200 ASA film, the negatives degradation and the domestic scanning have forced me to edit all the images.

When I took the photos that I show below, I thought about the memories in them, I did not look for quality or “art”. Sometimes we used a tripod but also a bridge, railing or stone and generally used the camera in automatic mode.

I want to admit that I was the first surprised when I saw the result with the Bob Halle comet. And… Isn’t the Sun a light on the dark background of the sky?

This is possibly the last “night” analog photo I took. After that trip I gave up analog photography and bought my first digital camera.

I love to rummage through my collection of photos because the images I find remind me of experiences and past adventures that are generally pleasant, that is, making articles for 35mmc is a double opportunity: I have a good time while I do it and I awaken almost forgotten memories.

Thanks for reading my article, I hope you liked it.

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