14. develop all my films - rolls 2 & 3

Following on from my previous post about developing my films, these are rolls 2 & 3 from my initial selection. Can I just point out, in terms of storing the camera films I've shot on I literally keep them all together in a box. Nothing is labelled. It's a mixed up box of random camera films that I've shot on at some point with one of my various cameras. Admittedly a terrible system.

So when I was pulling out films to develop, the chances of pulling out two films from the same period and indeed same event is actually pretty slim. Yet somehow I did it. Of the initial 3 films I selected, all 3 of them were shot in 2013. Even weirder, 2 of them are from the same event. Spooky right?

Beginning of August 2013 Andy took me to Y Not festival. Compared to Glastonbury, Y Not is a pretty tiny festival. But pretty perfectly formed. It was an incredibly wet weekend. In fact heavy thunderstorms stopped several performances. Most notably for us Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip where Pip crowd surfed out of the tent and eventually wound up on Andy's head trying not to knock his glasses off. We kept getting evacuated back to our tents because thunderstorms and festival electricals do not mix. It was both terrifying and amazing. I remember it as being a really fun albeit soggy weekend. We should probably go again sometime.

I had forgotten how much I like photographing Andy using my film cameras. He's a very handsome man and he looks especially good on film. I'm sure there's something to be said for the best photographs being those where the photographer has a great love for the subject.

14. develop all my films - roll 1

For those that know me, you may recall my interest in film photography and my collection of cameras. Photography has been in and out of my life since I was a kid. My stepdad likes to take credit for this, claiming he would hand me the family camera as a child and bought me my first 35mm camera as well as my first digital. I guess he's allowed that credit but the love I developed for film photography a few years ago is entirely my own.

I briefly studied photography at college back in 2010 but dropped out in my 2nd year. I get pretty sad that I didn't feel I could continue. But the course wasn't what I wanted. And my depression made it hard for me to stick it out. Funnily enough I bought my first proper 35mm film camera, an Olympus OM10 shortly before dropping out. And for two years I carried a film camera everywhere.

So here's my confession. As much as I still love film photography, as much as I still love the feel of a camera in my hands, the sound of the shutter clicking, and the eventual return of a developed film, I've become incredibly lazy with my photography.

Writing on this blog and messing with film photography have both taken a back seat to my job. Which is pathetic right? It's not even like my job is particularly engaging or interesting. I work in a contact centre. I used to love my job. Now I'm pretty indifferent.

I realised a few months back that I didn't have a good work/life balance. And that realisation led me to something of a mental breakdown. It drove me to reassess some things. That breakdown and my 29th birthday created the '30 before 30' list.

So on my list went the notion of getting all the undeveloped films that have been hanging around for these past couple of years developed. If you're not doing it yourself, getting films developed can be costly depending on where you go. So I took some time to find somewhere reasonable who would develop and put my images on a CD.

I found Photo Express, packaged up 3 films with an order form, posted it on Monday and got them back on Thursday. It was really exciting to look through the little contact sheet of my images and see photos from so long ago. The majority of them are from 2013!

So this is roll 1, from May 2013 when me and Andy went to Crosby Beach for the day. We wanted to see Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place'. It was a nice day.

This is just a selection of course. I'm not tech savvy enough to find a way to put masses of photos on a post without making it the world's biggest post. Maybe that can be something for me to look into as this goes on.

So for now I hope you enjoy the first of my developed rolls. Rolls 2 and 3 happened to have been from the same event so there'll be a bigger post about those later. And I've got 3 more films packaged up ready to send off. Wonder what else I've photographed in the past?

Tintypes

I fell in love with these tintypes by Victoria Will. Taken at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

There's something especially piercing about the portraits of the actors with blue eyes like Elijah Wood and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Evokes that old time feel in the photos. And the soft focus of Glenn Close behind Elle Fanning, she appears almost spectre like. I love all the marks around the photos as well, the wet plate process making each photograph entirely individual.

There appears to be a lot more of wet plate photography appearing these days and it's something I find endlessly beautiful. If there's one thing I'd like, it'd be to have my own tintype portrait taken. I think it'd also make a really fascinating project for family portraits. A tintype a year to document a growing family.

You can see the rest of Victoria's tintypes on her website, http://www.victoriawill.com/TINTYPES.

InCamera Arts

In my last post I dropped a line about the fact I've been attending a little photography group here in Manchester called 'InCamera Arts'. Run by the lovely Jenn Brookes it's a monthly meet where photographers who enjoy the analogue side of photography can sit round, have a chat and show some work if they like. The first two meetings I attended had guest speakers, Michelle Waters and Jonathan Stead. Both different artists working on film and both very inspiring in their individual ways. Tonight was a little quieter with a smaller group than I've seen previously but it gave us a chance to show some prints. I think it was a nice way to quietly celebrate the group being a year old. I hope I'll be around to see its 2nd birthday.

Near enough everyone showed some of their work in one way or another. There was one print of Jenn's that I was especially fond of which I hope she doesn't mind me sharing here. If you click on the photo you'll go through to her Flickr where she has tons of great photographs. I know there's pretty much no way of controlling how the purposely done destruction to the film turns out but the way the green is almost in line with the buildings and the bridge just looks stunning.

There was also this picture by Julian Dyer (check out his website too for more of his work) which I think looks fantastically timeless. He shot it on a Polaroid Land Camera a few months back but given the subject and the camera used if you gave this shot a few years to deteriorate a little then I doubt you'd be able to date it at all. How great is that?

And as for me, well excess is usually my thing so I took along a whopping 18 prints to show. They were little 5x7s to be fair. Considering I don't think I shoot in any particular style or have any kind of distinct signature to my photography, when I was looking for stuff to print I did notice from my recent Barcelona trip that I do have a fondness for shooting into the light. And within the Barcelona shots alone I found these 18 shots that all near enough come from shooting into the light.

I've never really reflected on my photographs in this way and it's funny to see that there is something of a trend within my shots. It's been good for me to pull them up in this way really and now I have a nice little collection with this theme. It'll be interesting to see what comes of it in future. Whether I'll find myself gathering a whole heap of these shooting into the light shots. I must say just having some physical prints makes for a nice change. I've been slowing gathering a collection of shots to get printed out so I can have some up around my room as miniature LomoWalls. Will definitely have to get that organised and begin the printing process soon. I've also been considering making a book from the shots I took in Barcelona, I really like the idea of the best being collected together in such a way and presented in a format which people can flick through. It seems a little more refined in comparison to your bog standard photo album.

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. The next 'InCamera Arts' is in December and we'll be looking at cameraless photography which is pretty exciting. Going to have to get some research done for that one!

Laters,

P x