Analog and chemical photography, films, darkroom
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Bria

Message in a Bottle

I am a third year student at the University of Wales Trinity St David studying Photography in the Arts. For my final major project I will be doing something quite interactive and I’m trying to find photographers who are enthusiastic about using film to take part.

Photographs once had a physical presence, something you could hold and own. Still something which could be reproduced but there would always be that first ‘original’ print which would be produced. Now the family photo album is something more of a digital archive. Not only is everything safely backed up on your computer or hard drive etc, the way photographs are shared on social media we have this sort of online archive which we can access from anywhere and regardless of if your phone has broken or you’ve lost your memory card, the images will always exist in these pockets of the internet.

What I want to do is bring back that feeling of having one photo. One copy which only exists as something physical. One negative and one photograph. Having no backup exist anywhere.

I plan to use medium format film and I will print one of each photo and then destroy the negative, recording the destruction. I will then actually post each photo to somebody around the world with a handwritten explanation of who I am and what I am doing. This process may be difficult to begin with as I have to learn to just let go of the photograph, knowing I may never see it again. It will remain as just a memory to me, something I can never reproduce or recapture. I will also ask each person who I write to repeat the process and send me back an original photo of whatever subject matter they see fit.

If you should choose to be involved please email me with a postal address at briabs@hotmail.co.uk .

Thank you in advance
29.10.14, 16:51
I am a third year student at the University of Wales Trinity St David studying Photography in the Arts. For my final major project I will be doing something quite interactive and I’m trying to find photographers who are enthusiastic about using film to take part.

Photographs once had a physical presence, something you could hold and own. Still something which could be reproduced but there would always be that first ‘original’ print which would be produced. Now the family photo album is something more of a digital archive. Not only is everything safely backed up on your computer or hard drive etc, the way photographs are shared on social media we have this sort of online archive which we can access from anywhere and regardless of if your phone has broken or you’ve lost your memory card, the images will always exist in these pockets of the internet.

What I want to do is bring back that feeling of having one photo. One copy which only exists as something physical. One negative and one photograph. Having no backup exist anywhere.

I plan to use medium format film and I will print one of each photo and then destroy the negative, recording the destruction. I will then actually post each photo to somebody around the world with a handwritten explanation of who I am and what I am doing. This process may be difficult to begin with as I have to learn to just let go of the photograph, knowing I may never see it again. It will remain as just a memory to me, something I can never reproduce or recapture. I will also ask each person who I write to repeat the process and send me back an original photo of whatever subject matter they see fit.

If you should choose to be involved please email me with a postal address at briabs@hotmail.co.uk .

Thank you in advance
6,420 clicks
SarahLou26

Complete beginner, please help!

Hello Sarah,

Sorry for answering quite late but never mind I hope it helps...

Look at my space, I am an analog dinosaur. Medium format and 35mm is my world, so this is my advise:

Equipment: Look for a 35mm first as films are available anywhere and for development use a lab in the first instance. Focus on handling the camera in its basic functions and then expand into expressing your visions.

So what to buy or what was my decision?

- Full metal body
- Glass melted and lenses make by the camera manufacturer
- Gear readily available on the second hand market
- Renowned quality in the professional field

I chose the Minolta XD-7 for those reasons. For this model Minolta and Leica ! cooperated (Leica R4).
There is only a handful lens manufacturers who produce their own glass and if you look into the test results, i.e. the 135mm f2.8 portrait was only beaten by the Leitz!
I am using the macro lens for it outstanding performance for landscape photography..
Don't worry about missing spot metering and other gadgets - as an accomplished photographer you know that this is no deal breaker. I had a Nikon F4s - did I use all the features? No! The advantage of such a professional beast is that you will not loose it - it is so heavy and until you made your mind up which setting to chose, the precious moment has gone which safes film!

Now for the Mamiya 645 pro TL - same selection criteria apply. This is my Darling! For portrait - and landscape I am using the Softfocus lens because from f8 on the pictures are outstanding.
OK, I have the standard lens, fisheye and 200 tele plus a 500mm and other goodies but this is only if you are comfortable with your analog achievement (or you can strike an exceptional deal)

Finally, there is the development. Consult the Ilford side first...

So, anymore questions - just ask

Good luck
Wolfgang
26.11.12, 20:39
Hello Sarah,

Sorry for answering quite late but never mind I hope it helps...

Look at my space, I am an analog dinosaur. Medium format and 35mm is my world, so this is my advise:

Equipment: Look for a 35mm first as films are available anywhere and for development use a lab in the first instance. Focus on handling the camera in its basic functions and then expand into expressing your visions.

So what to buy or what was my decision?

- Full metal body
- Glass melted and lenses make by the camera manufacturer
- Gear readily available on the second hand market
- Renowned quality in the professional field

I chose the Minolta XD-7 for those reasons. For this model Minolta and Leica ! cooperated (Leica R4).
There is only a handful lens manufacturers who produce their own glass and if you look into the test results, i.e. the 135mm f2.8 portrait was only beaten by the Leitz!
I am using the macro lens for it outstanding performance for landscape photography..
Don't worry about missing spot metering and other gadgets - as an accomplished photographer you know that this is no deal breaker. I had a Nikon F4s - did I use all the features? No! The advantage of such a professional beast is that you will not loose it - it is so heavy and until you made your mind up which setting to chose, the precious moment has gone which safes film!

Now for the Mamiya 645 pro TL - same selection criteria apply. This is my Darling! For portrait - and landscape I am using the Softfocus lens because from f8 on the pictures are outstanding.
OK, I have the standard lens, fisheye and 200 tele plus a 500mm and other goodies but this is only if you are comfortable with your analog achievement (or you can strike an exceptional deal)

Finally, there is the development. Consult the Ilford side first...

So, anymore questions - just ask

Good luck
Wolfgang
6,049 clicks
ilkadj

Take Part In The Analogue, Digital and You Questionnaire

Hi there friend!

Lomography wants to know about the role analogue and digital have in your life and how you feel about the dominance of digital technology. Is this trend positive or a necessary evil in this day and age? What do you think?

Digital technology is undoubtedly a core part of our daily lives. How comfortable are you about being constantly within reach? Do you feel naked if you leave the house without your phone? Or do you love the freedom being without technology brings? We’d love to know does shooting on film and and other analogue activities help you keep a healthy balance between being online and offline? We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to fill in the questionnaire and share your thoughts.

Also, please remember to hit ‘Submit’ at the end of the questionnaire otherwise your answers will not be registered.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to do this.

Answer the Questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/vie ... dklmU1E6MQ
5,826 clicks
Una Hennessy

Digital or Analog?

To Don Satalic regarding how easy it is to keep filmnegatives for a long time and how difficult this is with digital:

Correct! Correct! Correct!

I was doing a backup from older harddisks and it took me over two weeks to complete that job. And that's just photo's from 2003 - 2008.

Older pictures I made as a pro photographer are still filmnegatives thank god. But the familystuf I shot digitally from 1997 to 2002 are still on CD's...hope they are alright.

At some point I will have backup them as well...not a pleasant task as there must be a at least a thousand of them little disks :-(

The main problem with digital is: you shoot far more images, thus creating a huge problem regarding their long term storage.

Nowadays I save everything to DVD (at least 4 or 5 DVD's per wedding and 1 or two for a portrait session) as well as to two external harddisks.

I have to buy 2 TB harddisks every year now!!! I'm practically swamped with these things.

Keeping hundreds of thousands of digital images backed up correctly is far from easy, as I found out the hard way.

I started going 100% digital in 2003 and now I'm rethinking my earlier choice. One of the reasons being that I have to rely on a computer 100% of the time and with the numbers involved in my case, that's not a pretty picture. I'm actually quite fed up with it after 8 years.

At the moment I have done a few tests with digital alongside analog and the results are promising...for film.



Post Edited (13:24)
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