The frightening thing about turning something that you love into a career is that you always run the risk of driving passion directly into the ground as you strive to commercialize it and sell it to the masses. I wouldn’t say that I had gotten to that point, but I had begun feeling myself getting dangerously close. I knew that something had to be done to sustain me… to reignite my passion for imagery… to give me a breath of fresh air.
I randomly saw a post on Instagram about an online class taught by some guys I really looked up to that was all about film photography. I had never really taken an official photography class before in my life, so it seemed a bit odd to start now. But, the thing that caused me to take the jump was that this class was all about documenting your life via analog film. It would have nothing to do with weddings or fashion or the even the most sought after high-end film cameras. This was all about shooting for myself and for my family.
Exactly what I needed.
Throughout the class, I decided to really stretch myself. For the most part, I laid aside my “fancy” film cameras… the ones that I had to beg and plead for Sara to allow me to buy. I rummaged through the garage, my shelves, and a thrift store and found some old cameras that I wasn’t sure even worked. My goal was to really simplify and learn this art form called photography… the way that photographers years before me had learned.
It was an absolutely invigorating process. I told myself that I was going to set aside some cash for this learning process and just shoot… whatever I wanted… with whatever camera I wanted… and I would allow myself to fail.
I would shoot through a roll of film, and like a little kid, I would run it to Walgreens as fast as I could. Several times I discovered that half the roll was blank and most of the images were completely under-exposed. But, through the process, I discovered a true love for film and those simple cameras that only have a few buttons. I found a rawness that was compelling and kept me reloading roll after roll of film. This was the kind of rawness that I want to remember my family by.
So, I want to share some of those images with you. These were all taken during the last month of exploration for me. Most were shot on old, cheap cameras that people had given me through the years. Most were developed at my neighborhood Walgreens. Some were taken with more expensive film cameras and sent off to my wonderful film lab in Oregon, PhotoVision. Many were complete surprises when I finally got to see the scans (one of the best parts of shooting film)! All of them grabbed me in a special way and made me fall in love with the art of photography all over again.
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Cameras: Nikon FE, Nikon EM, Minolta XG7, Contax 645, Yashica Mat 124G, Nikon L35AF
Film Stock: Kodak Portra 400, Kodak Portra 160, Fuji Superia 400, Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford Delta 400
Labs: PhotoVision, Walgreens
