The last decade and a half have been a rough time for people shooting film, watching Kodak in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, the discontinuation of favorite film stocks, rising prices, and the closing of film labs around the world. For those shooting motion picture film and particularly small-gauge film, it’s been a bitter struggle. Thankfully, we …
The Negative Space – a Portrait of a Local Film Lab Read More
In a nutshell: it was like a boxing match between me and the world, or perhaps between me and my ego. I’m unsure at this point which, because I’ve now taken so many blows to the head that I’m surprised it’s still attached. What was I even supposed to get out of it? I probably …
Too friendly, if I’m honest. But this is why I carry a camera with me nearly everywhere I go. It’s usually something like a Nikon F2 loaded with Tri-X (rated at 1600), with my 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor attached. This kit can elicit old guys waxing nostalgia and the interest of young film shooters alike. And the wildlife would appear to be just as interested in my camera. If you can still call them that.
When growing up, it’s often common to think of your parents’ house as “Home.” Somewhere you can always go back to, somewhere that should always be a safe place. My mother’s house was that for me as much as I was able to have that, and over the years I’ve been in and out of that house so many times, living there as well as just visiting. And through it all I’ve had my camera(s) with me, documenting the process. When I was young I remember looking through picture albums with one of my parents and them telling me stories or just reminiscing about certain events. I find that in my own life, the more I photograph something the better I can remember it later, whether it’s a space, a time, or an event: my friends’ houses, getting together for barbeques and whisky tastings, my bedrooms over the years, birthday parties, my times in COVID quarantine, and yes, my mother and her house. Over the years these all provided good fodder for my cameras.
For the last 10 years my photography has primarily been black & white film. For me the colors of Spring and Summer are captured by the wonderful tones of Kodak Tri-X. But sometime in Winter I start reacting against the world around me which is by that point very colorless. And that is when I turn to the small bit of color I shoot in the year, almost all of it in the Fall. And why not?
