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Thoughts on a portrait
I am sitting in front of a picture of a girl I never knew. I found it once before, years ago. It struck me then (as it strikes me now) that she lived once as I live now, although she’s just on paper. Although I never met her, I know some things about her; I know why I will never know her, how she came to be, and how she ceased to. I can tell by the slight curve of her eyebrow that she carried wit with style. Why does this interest me? In fact, why should this bring interest to anyone? It was
The Darkroom
It could very well be that the most iconic part of analog photography is the darkroom. The darkroom is the direct consequence of early photography; this is to say that large parts of the technology of darkrooms can be traced to the 1830s. Nonetheless, we have of course come a long way. The discovery of the photochemical effect started the love story of photography. The thought of capturing light and time, and transferring it to paper, is one that has fascinated us ever since we found out it w
Return to Analog in the Digital Age
Written By Calvin Bailey. Film is on its way back. What exactly it is about film that makes me excited every time I load a new roll into my 35mm is hard to say, but I am not adverse to educated guesses. For me, and for many others, as I am inclined to believe, film exists on two different stages, which in some funny way complement each other. At one stage, film exists as a clear memory of trips to the chemist, index charts, family holidays, and as something gone by. Nostalgic as this interpre
Juan David Estrada: Analog Photography as a way of life
When I want to show happiness and positive feelings in general, I like color film and B&W when the subject is the total opposite. Tell us about yourself. I'm a 30 year old guy from Bogota, Colombia, South America. I trade and sell film photography equipment and accessories as a hobby and for a living too. When and how did the film journey begin for you? Ever Since I was a little kid I've been involved with photography, my mom gave me an Olympus trip 35 and I used her Minolta 7000i to
México City a film friendly place
Mexico city is a place where as a film photographer you can find anything almost anywhere: lots of films, urban landscapes, rural landscapes, historic places , secure locations, and people that doesn't care what you are doing in the street.. There are a lot of downsides using film as your main medium when traveling, from insecurity to film scarcity, how easily you overcome this issues depends a lot on the resources the city can give you. *Olympus PEN EE-2 / Konica Centuria expired 2004*
Portraits of Resilience by Halim Ina
Arab Woman, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon Almost two decades ago my photographic journey began with these faces, and to this day remains focused thanks to the lessons learned in their presence. While they were fleeing for other reasons at that time, the Syrians photographed in Lebanon lived a hand to mouth existence even then. They left their homes in search of a better life, and to escape a suffocating system in their own country. Although they lived in tents lacking running water, sanitation and
Live Music & Live Photos
Beside photography, my other passion in life has always been music. I also ended up spending quite a few years of my early life playing in a few bands in Italy, mainly on a strict Fender Stratocaster/Marshall diet. But that's another story, so let's move on. So, in terms of music, what better city than London to go out and watch a concert almost every night? Actually, that was not the reason I moved there, but it did help a bit. I soon came to realise that was the combination of music & phot
Penning The City Down: A Half Frame Tale.
I might have already said, here and there. I might have as I have a well proven history f repeating myself. Anyway. I did try to like digital. And that's a fact. I mean, I was faking it so well I was actually beginning to believe it myself. But that was a long time ago; nowadays I got back to my own feet, and I am usually referred to as 'that freak who shoots film.' So, how did things turn out this way? What did really happen? I believe this camera did. Olympus Pen EES-2 Ilford XP2 400
Expired Streets On Expired colors
I have been a professional photographer for sometime now, and some of you know me well enough to know I tried well hard enough to both like and believe in digital. However, things did not turn out the way they probably should have. Basically, the more I tried, the more I disliked it. It's now been (also) quite sometime I have been teaching photography; all I try to do is to make both sure and clear the differences of those mediums to my students. Some of them will catch that right away, other
A brief (yet helpful) guide to buy expired film
When buying expired film we must consider one thing, we are buying a lottery ticket... There was a time when anyone could go to any store and buy a roll of color film, also there were a lot of photography stores if some specific roll was needed, where a variety of brands, styles and ISO numbers was offered. As the digital revolution took place, the big manufacturers decreased their film catalog, offering just the most commercial types. Nowadays, the hunt season for those lost gems is almost
Guest post: 7 Reasons you should get a 2 ½ x 3 ½ Graflex right away
This post was written by Cesar Romero. As a film photographer, I was always tempted to try large format but it looked so difficult and unreachable, so for some time I just admired young virtuous people like Mat Marrash on flickr but nothing more. One day in a GAS rush I found what seemed a large format camera in good shape, but a sentence in the advert caught my attention “includes a 120 film back” so I thought “I already know how to shoot and develop 120 film and this could be a good start