Image: Double exposure portrait series

Technical info

Film Used: ILFORD XP2

Format: 35mm film

Camera: NIKON F3T Lens: 50mm NIKOR-S 1.4 Exposure time: 1/60

Aperture: 5.6

Other equipment: -

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

black and white double exposure shot on film Image by Shchukin Nikita

Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it?

I was attracted for a long time to the visual capabilities of multiple exposures. But I had no concept of how I could go beyond the simple multiple overlapping of frames, until I visited Marcel Duchamp’s exhibition on MMCA Seoul. On this exhibition, I saw his portrait ”Two Duchamp's”. From this moment I got keen on the idea of keeping different stages of the same moment within the same frame so that it adds an extra depth to the subject.

Did you come across any challenges?

Most challenges were around the sequence of frames: which frame should be created first and how to put together the second frame. I spent some time and tried a few films to find the best way

What process did you use (Tripod? Set exposure time? Filters? Lighting?) 

As for the process itself, at first I thought it doesn't matter which frame you take first - just make correction of exposure by one step. And it really works sometimes. But the better way is to expose the film gradually. I mean, first you need to make a frame with a larger dark area (silhouette). This way it is not necessary to do additional exposure correction. Then I normally expose the second frame - this way the first exposure will act as a frame.

How did you process it:

For this particular film I used the services of a darkroom. Since ILFORD XP2 is a film for the C-41 process. The laboratory is the most reliable way to get a guaranteed result.