Search results for: 'you matt makes on'

One Specific Speed Rating Us film photographers are used to the limitations of our medium. In fact, we often regard them as strengths, and not weaknesses. But even we can’t really take issue with the suggestion that as soon as we begin to expose a roll of film we are limited to one specific speed rating, making it more difficult to adapt to quickly changing light conditions. On digital: no problem. Just whack the ISO up to some implausibly high number, and keep shooting. Sadly we just can’t do that mid...

When I Was A Teenager Mine is a common story with photography in that my dad gave me his 35mm camera when I was a teenager. I shot his Minolta until I dropped it a few too many times and the light leaks became punitive. Soon after, I stumbled into the darkroom just as casually after I found my dad’s enlarger in the back of a closet and my friend, Joel, taught me the basics of printing in a few hours (I didn’t realize how difficult that would be). I didn’t have or know about filters and had no techniq...

My First Child I got pregnant with my first child in early 2020. Our 12 week scan took place three days before the announcement of the first lockdown in the UK. I spent the majority of that pregnancy in isolation, with no face to face appointments with any health professionals and barely any contact with friends and family beyond WhatsApp or the occasional video call. This New Chapter To make matters worse, I fell at home at around 30 weeks pregnant and broke my left wrist. I spent the best part of 1...

Concrete Jungle At the crack of dawn, the sleepless vagrant remains glued to the stone of the pavement. A long road with no intersection, apha indlela ayibuzwa kwabaphambili. As the light creeps into the skyline, all a city dweller sees is blood and grime. With so much dog shit in the streets, beggars are still scrapping for bones to chew. A muffled groan & moaning of a trapped miner, buskers are constantly offbeat & in a permanent state of gloom and cynicism. The nostalgic aroma of the communityâ€...

The Nod The rope is thick and heavy, and coated with resin applied to heat it up and make it sticky. The cowboy wraps this bullrope around his right hand and ties himself in. A thin leather glove protects him from burning his hand if the rope slips. He settles himself on the back of the 1500 pound Brahman bucking bull named Spooky Lukey, and Spooky Lukey hasn’t been ridden yet this season, or last year for that matter. When he’s set, he gives The Nod. The Nod starts off one of the greatest sequences in...

The Love Affair I didn’t even really like racing when we planned our trip to the Monaco Grand Prix. Not racing, not Formula 1, not any of it. But I did have a very long ongoing love affair with the south of France and any opportunity to spend time along the Mediterranean was a go for me. Something Was Unlocked As my husband Mark and I were planning this trip to celebrate a milestone birthday, something happened to me in the lead-up; something was unlocked. It’s Mark who has the life-long love of ...

The Greatest Gift In 1984, at age of 10 my foster parents, to whom I was never close, gave me a camera. It is the greatest gift they gave to me. Since then, I have photographed the world to make sense of it and my place in it. Now, forty years later, I respect photography to the extent it should be respected. It has become an integrated part of who I am, it has shaped me into what I am and I have shaped it - we are one and I would arguably feel nothing in life without this powerful mechanism. I come from a...

'HOME' Winner announced For the 2023/24 ILFORD Photo student photography competition we set the theme of 'Home'. We asked students to show us what home meant to them. That could be a person, place, object, or hobby that embodied the feeling of 'home'. As always, they rose to the challenge and entries started coming in within weeks of the competition being launched. By the closing date of 31st January 2024 we had received hundreds of entries from students based all over the world showing us their version...

The Truth Is It is always with regret when I say that I never had a formal arts education. The truth is, growing up, I devalued the ability of taking a ‘decent’ picture along with whether I could kick a ball with my left foot (I can) or produce a winning back hand on the tennis court (I can’t). Photography was for holidays and special occasions and not much in between. In the days before social media and personal websites, a work colleague once asked me for printed copies of my photos after a trip to...

Join us while we chat with freelance photographer Dominik Friess, who is our 76th In Focus interviewee. Dominik's main focus in photography is portraiture, as it is the form of photography that resonates with him the most because of the uniqueness and depth that each person carries within themselves. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I don't believe I have an 'all-time favorite' as such. I've taken many photos on ILFORD fil...