Travel the world with Alexander Pollnow
"You´ll see me smiling like a kid on Christmas after every shot, simply by the sound of the shutter. "
Tell us about yourself.
Hey guys, my Name is Alex. I´m from Stuttgart, Germany and 28 years old. I work for an engineering company which manufactures process plants and my job is to install and commission those plants all over the world. So most of the pictures you can see were taken abroad.
When and how did the film journey begin for you?
I started shooting film about one year ago. At this particular time I asked myself, if all my pictures are converted to black and white, why not shooting them "out of cam"…and I am not talking about the preset in my D800.
In summer of 2014, I bought a Nikon FE2 on ebay, because I could use some of my lenses, like the 85mm and the 105mm and it looked like a reasonable camera.
I went to Mangalore/ India without knowing what I´d gonna get out of it. Parallel I shot with my D800 and had some sort of comparison. I was simply hooked, not only because of the results, but also of the way i approach subjects.
I shoot portrait, travel, documentary, landscapes, color, black and white and since I cant see a red line that goes through my pictures, which connects one to another I always wonder, whether I am still on the journey to find my subject matter, or is this frequent, and to me chaotic changing some sort of my photographic style.
When I look through my Instagram feed it feels like I´m looking in a mirror into my soul. I can’t settle down at one place, though this is probably the reason I chose this job, or the job had chosen me and so I can’t stuck to one genre and focus on permanently. I’m a sucker for novels, music, the power of words and any kind of beauty that surrounds me.
I like to give quotes as a caption to my pictures, although they´re not related to each other. Its like an additional way to express myself, not only through the picture itself, but through words, too.
What type of film do you usually shoot and what made you choose it?
The more I was shooting film, the more I fell in love with the colors of film. I choose film in regards to the subject matter.
I love shooting Ektar 100 for Landscapes and travel, because of its brilliant colors. Its a low speed film which is great for bright daylight and I don´t necessarily have to bother about x-rays at the airport, too.
I usually shoot my Portraits on Tri-X, because the grain is like a natural beauty retouch, but still trying out other black and white films.
What camera makes you click?
Definitely the Polaroid Conversion 110A/B to 4x5"
I recently bought one of those pieces of art and I am so excited about my new family member.
Besides that, I love shoot with my Hasselblad 500c/m, just because of the experience. When you look through the waist level finder and release that massive shutter. You´ll see me smiling like a kid on Christmas after every shot, simply by the sound of the shutter.
Between black and white and colour film which would you choose?
Though I am at the moment more likely to shoot color film, I guess I would choose black and white because most of my inspiration sources like Long Than, Joseph Hoflehner, Hengki Koentjoro, Michael Kenna, Jan Scholz, or Ryan Muirhead are either pure or most black and white photographers.
A good black and white photograph, is just sincerely bare and naked and it conveys the silence and purity from the subject to the eye of the viewer.
What lenses do you use?
For travelling with my Hasselblad I always and only use the 50mm lens. For portraits I use the 80mm lens Medium Format
At the moment I use 5 different cameras and so different formats (still expanding) with even more lenses, so I won´t bother you with this, but I like the perspective between 28mm and 50mm (35mm Camera equivalent)