I’m really excited, if not a little daunted, to have been asked to contribute to a new exhibition opening this September…
“A photography exhibition championing mindful creativity in our hyperconnected world. In an age where billions of digital photos flood our feeds daily, eleven photographers invite you to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the contemplative art of analogue film.”
This feels a little bit like a full circle moment for me, as analogue photography was where I learnt my craft, and where I discovered my individuality. It was inevitable that I would come back to it time and time again.
Why do I shoot film? Something I thought on and wrote about last year:
“It lets me move slowly and concisely, seeking just 24 images to make my own. 24 little take aways from a precious window of time. I sit and wait for the light to move. I make a choice between this, or that.
It makes my heart beat slower.
It makes my feet tread softer.
I don’t judge, and I am unable to review. What will be will be. Urgency and pressure is removed. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get some nice photos, but if I don’t it doesn’t matter, because I’ve already achieved so much – a state of true presence within the world I walk.
There’s no dive to the computer. But there is measurement, conciseness, meditative movement as the tank is agitated. Tick-tock clock. Nostalgic smell of fixer.
And the reveal… but, wait. Let it dry, let it hang and straighten, give it time.
Then after everything, these little things I saw two days ago, might materialise. But it’s such a small, not insignificant, but small part of everything that has occurred.
Returning to film has had one of the most positive impacts on my photographic practice.”
In addition to this, having thought on it more over the last year, I think the impact it’s had on my creative (including digital) practice is paramount. The approach I’ve honed in my film shooting, is applied to every layer of creativity in my being. It’s joyful, more meaningful and gives me pause to think… and thinking is important. It’s given me a quiet confidence in my purpose, and as such I know I don’t need to chase accolades and I certainly don’t need validation in my ‘imperfect’ imagery – because that in its very nature is what it is. Imperfect, as is life.
Analogue has a reputation for being expensive, environmentally damaging, and inaccessible. I would argue it is none of those things if you approach it with curiosity and let it lead you down new paths that reject consumerism and high-speed living. Second hand cameras, expired film stock, plant developers, online communities full of enthusiasm and love for the art. Look closer. It’s not a roll of film vs. a 100 digital images. It’s an impactful and thoughtful approach to photography as an art form.
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