Analogs in a digital era, by Nicola Neri

"In my fridge there are more films than food."

Tell us about yourself.

I'm 35 years old, I live and work in Milan, Italy. I'm an Art Director for a videogame company and I do photography during my free time. I have been doing only film photography for the last three years and in my fridge there are more films than food.

When and how did the film journey begin for you?

I started to shoot with my father’s film camera when I was 18, it was a beautiful Nikon FE. Then moved to digital and only recently fell in love with film again after I discovered that even today, during the digital era, a lot photographers are still enjoying analog photography: Jan Scholz, Ryan Muirhead, Parker Fitzgerald, Hannes Caspar, Can Dagarslani and many more are very inspirational to me.

What type of film do you usually shoot and what made you choose it?

I think I tried all kinds of existing films, but my choice has fallen upon Kodak film, especially TRI-X and Portra. The initial reason was the good balance between price and quality. Now I start to love the incredible results.

Who are your muses?

I don’t have any particular muse because I prefer to shoot with as many girls as I can, but I found two girls that I love to work with: Gaia whom is a beautiful Peruvian model with super curly hair and Sara whom I recently collaborated for a work which will be published soon, she is also a photographer and I found very helpful having her on my set.

What camera makes you click?

I am always fascinating about different gears. I own and owned different types of cameras, but my favorites currently are my beloved Hasselblad 503CW and a Pentax 67II.

Between black and white and colour film which would you choose?

Very difficult choice. I usually change my opinion from time to time, it depends on different factors: the model, the location, the mood of the shooting. If I had to choose for sure it will be Black and White: Shadow and light without any distractions.

What lenses do you use?

For every camera I try to collect a wide, normal and tele lenses. But my favorite lens is 50mm equivalent. Hasselblad Carl Zeiss 80mm lens and the Pentax 67 SMC 90mm are the sharpest lenses I ever tried, both with an awesome bokeh effect. I often use short extension tubes that help me take very close up portraits.

Do you make any experiments on film?

I scan my negative with the black frame, this has two different meanings: the first one is that you have to realize you are watching a negative, not the photo and even if you are watching it through a monitor, it’s physical (this is my simple ode to analog photography), the second one is a technical exercise: everything inside the frame should be perfect, without cuts. This is not always true, but I’m learning every day ;)

A lot of people are interested in this technique that was taught to me by a talented Austrian photographer (you can enjoy his shoots here: christoph.m.bieber.photography): on a flatbed scanner, instead of using a standard film holder, just lay down the film between the glass of the scanner and a museum glass. In this way you can now scan a bigger area. For your information I own an Epson V600.

Who are your muses?

I don’t have any particular muse because I prefer to shoot with as many girls as I can, but I found two girls that I love to work with: Gaia whom is a beautiful Peruvian model with super curly hair and Sara whom I recently collaborated for a work which will be published soon, she is also a photographer and I found very helpful having her on my set.

You can find Nicola Neri here:
nicolaneri.photography
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