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A black and white film community
Since film is no longer the primary domain of professionals, it’s been adopted again in earnest by passionate individuals that produce legitimate work. In this age of instant gratification, infinite dynamic range, and auto-everything, it’s nice to rely on a predictable and high-quality medium.
I shoot HP5+ almost exclusively. It’s everything I want in a black and white film. It’s flexible, widely available and fits right into my workflow. I’ve played both...
I’m Anil Mistry and I’m a photographer. I shoot a whole variety of work, including headshots, documentary, portraits and personally initiated projects. Whatever interests me and helps me to improve my body of work.
I’ve been asked to talk about an area of my photographic work that I have a real passion for. In my case, that's the capturing of street portraits.
Why do I take street portraits?
There’s two main reasons I do it, and I’ll try to go through them succinctly:
It’s not easy
...
Taking the plunge
I'd had this roll of Ilford HP4 for a good few months and was hesitant to put it through a camera. The fact that it was so pristine in it's condition made me feel that whatever I used it for had to be significant. I had to wait for the right opportunity.
As the weeks passed, I began putting unnecessary pressure on myself to plan a shoot around this one film. It was sitting on a shelf, judging me. At this point I decided to stop procrastinating and just shoot the roll, regardless of w...
Road trip?
This Spring three friends and I piled ourselves and a months worth of gear into a 29 foot RV, and hauled it, and 4 snowmobiles into the Chugach mountain range near Valdez, Alaska.
During one month we drove roughly 10,000 miles, shot 30 rolls of film, broke 2 snow machines, destroyed a few pairs of skis, and between the four of us broke the world record for hotdogs consumed (unconfirmed). It was challenging at times, but if we’d wanted an easy trip we would never have come this far north...
An experiment in chemical possibilities
When I took up a camera after a few years’ hiatus in 1990, I was surprised to discover that I could no longer get a black & white film developed through the nearest camera shop, never mind through the local pharmacy. If memory serves, I was told it would cost $40 for a single film. Naturally, I returned to processing my own film just I had done when I first took up a camera in the early 1970s. The world had moved on, and colour film was the default medium f...
Tree #8
Technical info:
Film Used: Ilford FP4
Format: 6x7
Camera: Mamiya 7ii
Lens: 43mm
Exposure time: 3 min
Other equipment: Lee Filter holder, Lee 4 stop nd, Lee Red #25 filter, B&W 105mm Polarizer, Gitzo Tiopod, Acratech Ballhead.
Location: Zion National Park
Tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it?
A couple good friends of mine who know Zion quite well introduced me to this fantastic little tree last Fall. The tree is about 9 feet tall and high up on a ridge ...
Beginnings
I came to analog photography late. I enjoy being able to feel the film and create with my hands, and the suspense of not knowing how the final shots look until you develop the film. Shooting film changes the style of how I work. I take less pictures and think more. It is more immersive, I have more time to feel their characters, their experiences.
I shoot all my projects in medium format film. I do use digital, but only for commercial photography or for working on reports.
Materials ag...
Chemigram workshop
On a very hot, sunny Saturday six students from The Mill Arts Centre Trust in Banbury took part in a Chemigram workshop.
Chemigrams were established in the 1950s by Belgian artist Pierre Cordier. Chemigrams are created by forcing a chemical reaction between photographic paper and photographic chemistry. In this workshop, we used ILFORD Warmtone Resin Coated Paper, ILFORD Pearl Resin Coated Paper, ILFORD Universal Developer, ILFORD Warmtone Developer and ILFORD Rapid Fixer.
Beautiful...
Of course, we see in color - but vision is just one part of how we sense the environment and moments. In the mountains I see tremendous peaks, I feel and hear the storms, freeze, and feel emotions from success, failure and intense personal experiences. All that black + white can convey more intensively - for me this is not a reduction over colour photography, but an amplification of impressions.
This is the translation of a short text I wrote a few years back for the German Schwarzweiss Magazine.
Si...