Search results for: 'making forc'

This is a story about serendipity, generosity, community, and several rolls of Ilford FP4 film. It begins in April 2020, during our first Covid-19 lockdown when a request from a sibling for an old family photo led me to dig around in my messy 35mm archive. I discovered quite a few forgotten negatives and slides from my life during the 1970’s, when I was young and single. They had been randomly stored and dragged around in house moves whilst I focussed on marriage, motherhood and a career in Social Work. E...

Community Grant Shortlist We received hundreds of applicants for the grant and choosing just 5 for you to vote on is always difficult. Please ensure that you read all of the submissions before casting your vote for your favourite. FLATS Teen Summer Camp - Jessi Bowman We are looking to launch a free summer camp for teens, using our community darkroom to introduce young students to the magic of analog photography. Our goal is to remove financial barriers and create an accessible space where they can le...

We speak to Jim Mortram, who is this week's In Focus interview. Jim is an award-winning Social Documentary Photographer and the creator of these photo stories: Small Town Inertia. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This portrait with Carl, as always for me, was made with HP5 Plus pushed to 800. When I first met Carl & began collaborating with him on sharing his story he was in a bad place. We would talk often but it was mayb...

4th of July weekend It all started with a single roll of 120 ILFORD HP5+ film and a Rolleiflex 3.5F over the Independence Day weekend which fell on a Monday this year. It was the Friday of that long holiday weekend and I loaded the roll of film in the Rolleiflex and took the camera for a ride to McIntosh Lake in Longmont Colorado (USA) in the hopes of finding worthwhile photo subjects. My goal was to find street portraits and storytelling photographs. What it became over the next ten weeks is the Longmo...

'What are you doing?' After 25 years it still catches me off guard. Because my work happens in public spaces, the answer comes often and without pause. Men walking by the scene will change direction and make their way to within a meter of my tripod. While to me it is evidently clear, to the viewers it is understandably strange. For my portraits of girls in rural India, this is supremely true. To set the scene, we are using medium format gear mounted on a tripod, speaking with the children being photographe...

Why pinhole photography? This is a question I’m often asked, by fellow photographers and complete strangers alike. Using a beautiful wooden Ondu camera, I began exploring the world of slow photography about five years ago. The moment I saw my first developed negatives I knew I’d found a glimpse of photographic heaven. This started my obsession with this ancient form of imaging. As you’ll see, my love of this medium has many facets – the creative possibilities, the look and even the image making pro...

Portraits Of Strangers I’ve always been fascinated with people on the street and how they carry themselves. Their faces, body language, the clothes they wear - everyone’s walking around with their own unique story, and I can’t help but be curious. I've spent a lot of time working with non-actors in commercials and documentaries, which has been a crash course in connecting with people quickly. It’s not your typical "stand here, do this" directing. It's about getting real people to open up in front o...

Oh, crap! What have I done? Let’s see.  I committed to do a solo photography show, with twenty-seven images.  All twenty-seven are 4x5 black and white negatives, so they need to be darkroom printed.  And those will be 20x24 prints.  Yeah, and I need to have them matted and framed.  The icing on the cake?  I have just under three months to do this. Yep, this is going to be an interesting project.  But let’s back up to the beginning. The Event It was April 2023, three years after the pand...

Say Hello Few people feel comfortable striking up a conversation with a person they haven’t previously met. I refrain from using the word “stranger” because the way I see it, we’re all fellow humans, potential acquaintances, possible friends. And who says they’re any stranger than I am? After all, I’m the one going up to people I meet in public asking to make their portrait. A camera in hand really is a magical device that allows us to meet almost anyone, anywhere. To approach them. Say hello. ...

 El Parque Nacional I met Andrés and his buddies at Bogotá's most iconic park, el Parque Nacional. I was filming a video for my YouTube channel (Through the Glass) about the 800 or so displaced Embera indigenous people who were occupying the park. Andrés and crew were skating the park's entrance steps and sharing their boards with a group of Embera children. The Proposal The guys asked me where I was from and we got talking about the analog photography YouTube channel I was launching. I proposed ...