Film is not dead it just smells funny

We rarely see or remember people in a split-second capture of those moments between expressions: our impression is built up from watching them and seeing them over time. I became interested in the possibility of taking photographs of that sense of how we think we see someone. Perhaps it's closer to what a portrait painter would do: watch very closely for a long time, and make an image that holds an impression or memory of their face. For the past three years I have been working on portraits exploring this balance between motion and stillness. Even if you hold as still as you possibly can, over the minutes your expression changes, your face moves, you breathe, your eyes wander. Small movements vanish and soften, others reshape the impression of the face, or leave ghosts of alternate expressions. I keep trying to make photographs of what I think I, and others, look like, keep trying to hold the impression of time in one image.

In the past year I have been trying to transfer this same way of seeing to lens cameras as well, trying to find space to work between slow intensity and the sharpness and suddenness of glass.

I work almost exclusively with black and white film, with three main cameras: a 4x5" wooden pinhole camera made by the Lensless Camera Co, the medium format Rolleiflex 3.5f I inherited from my grandmother, and a 4x5" Toyo field camera which was a gift from a treasured friend. I develop my film in the kitchen sink, and get too few long printing sessions in the local public darkroom where I print with traditional silver, but have been slowly edging towards printing more with platinum/palladium (a beautiful but expensive love affair.)

I live in Edinburgh, Scotland

Katie Cooke on Flickr
Slowlight: a gallery of pinhole photography by Katie Cooke
portraits on katiecooke.com

I have been working in this series for four years now. With it, I have attempted to explore several dichotomies I find in portraiture. Does a portrait say more about the sitter, or the photographer? Does the portrait have a meaning in itself, or only in the subjective presumptions of the viewer? Can nudity expose character with skin?

I work only in film, using a Sinar Norma and a Tele Rolleiflex. My reasons are as much emotional as aesthetic. I still delight in the alchemy of transforming a strip of polyester (that I am forbidden to see) into pictures. I enjoy, too, the craft of enlarging a negative into a silver gelatin print. The cameras, for their part, are masterpieces of industrial design.

I feel as if working with film anchors me in a photographic tradition that extends back for generations. My newest camera is forty years old. One of my view camera lenses, a Hermagis Portrait Lens, was made in Paris in the 1870s. I wonder: Who used this lens before me? What did they see through it? Who will put it to work when I am gone?

My wife Melanie is an extraordinary and an accomplished photographer, and she too works only in film. (You can see her work at www.mcnew.net/melanie.) We live in a small apartment in New York City, but we have converted our bedroom closet into a darkroom, just big enough to jam in a 4x5 enlarger. We make do.

Sanders McNew on Flickr
Sanders McNew's website
Sanders e-mail

It's actually more fun to discover something special in my boring daily life than to seek a special kind of place on this earth."


Our world is not so simple to be able to divide it into the dualism of "Light and Shadow". But then I discovered myself lately that the secrets of this world which I have been constantly exploring and discovering through the lens could be the scent of the gleaming light revealing from the darkness. My photographic vision lacks any kind of obvious Concept, or Theme and I simply keep burning the image into the film through my own instinct and impulse...... ........there is nothing else. Even though I believe that the entire world could possibly be revealed by the series of Visions which I create.....I've been through a long long winding road to discover that I am seeking the Light that is emerging the Darkness.

Using film has become one of my Obsession lately, since I know at least in the next half-decade we all will have no choice but to give up and surrender and go for Digital. I don't think "Film will be completely Dead" but it could possibly become one of the most Luxurious thing in our life in few more years.

"Physically residing in the capital city of the Far East island - Tokyo,JAPAN while my spirit drifting the Universe."

Toshihiro Oshima

Toshihiro Oshima on Flickr
Permanently under construction HP "Rayon Vert"
Tommy Oshima on PBase
Fotolofue "La Chambre Claire"

I find the hunt for goodies to ensnare with my keepsake-maker a solitary and comforting exercise. The patience and time spent measuring light and setting focus is pure meditation. I mainly shoot with an all-manual 6x6 camera and I always carry several film magazines. It usually isn’t until I see an image that I make the intentional decision between capturing it in monochrome or color (whether that means film, slide, or Polaroid).

* A neurological condition where more than one sense is activated concurrently, such as spontaneously seeing sound in color and/or shape.

Currently living on the East Coast, USA

original Ann on Flickr

I bought my first Canon AE-1 for my first trip to Mexico when I was 18. I read the manual front to back and without any other guidance began my photographic voyage. The AE-1 had been my only camera for nearly 15 years. This last year however I made several additions to my collection including a Gaoersi 4x5 with a Rodenstock 75mm, the Canon EOS1V, and for my new hobby of underwater photography the Nikonos RS. The 4x5 is really where my creativity goes now. I love the entire process and the fact that neither the camera nor my meter (Sekonic L-398) requires power. Composing an image on the ground glass (mine is a Bill Maxwell) is incredibly satisfying.

Currently I’m mostly residing in Puerto Rico but traveling almost half of the year.

Stacey Hoffman on Flickr

I need to immerse myself in the activity, I can’t go out for the odd hour and produce images, I need to dedicate my time to my images. This means that I regularly take my tent up to the Lake District national park in the north west of the UK and spend a few days with just my camera. Quite a selfish activity I suppose, but I have a very supportive family.

The fells of the Lake District have always been an important area for me, When I was in my teens I walked, and rode motor bikes, around them, I sat and looked at them and painted them. Once I decided to concentrate on photography it was only natural that they should be my main subject. I spend full days walking and shooting photographs. The walking aspect I believe is important, it helps to focus your mind and attention on the subject. I was taught by John Blakemore, who encouraged us to almost meditate in the area we were working in, he talked about ‘the spirit of the place’. In away I suppose walking on my own is my way of doing this.

I mainly use Hasselblad, my kit consisting of a 503cx a 553elx with 60, 80, 150 and 250 mm lenses. Large format also plays a lead role in my work, mainly a Sinar Norma with either a 5x4 or a 5x7 back. I enjoy the discipline of the Sinar, but in recent years I have used the Blad more as I am getting older and more unfit!

My work generally consists of at least three projects at any one time. At the moment I am shooting in the Lakes when the weather is suitable, on the coast when its not, and in the Peak District national park or North Wales when I can only dedicate a day to my work. Keeps me busy, and smiling.
Currently living in Mossley. Gtr Manchester, UK

John Kiely on Flickr
John Kiely's web site