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Introducing our 75th In Focus interview and our analogue community grant winner, Federico Pestilli. Pestilli was born in Rome and became interested in documentary-style of photography, focusing on irony that unites people, places and symbols with each other.
Section 1 - Background
Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you?
Heritage - Arianna - Cocullo, Italy - Pentax 67, 135mm lens - HP5+
This is an image of Arianna, a snake handler from the town of Cocul...
Environmental Portraits
I started my analogue black and white portraits of artists in spring 2021, the second year of the pandemic. I wanted to photograph actors in Berlin over a longer period of time. This was the right moment because theaters were closed and filming of movies had largely been stopped. I decided to shoot some kind of “environmental portraits” in public spaces. I wanted the location to be part of the portrait. In addition, local health restrictions back then allowed gatherings of exact...
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...
The Truth Is
It is always with regret when I say that I never had a formal arts education. The truth is, growing up, I devalued the ability of taking a ‘decent’ picture along with whether I could kick a ball with my left foot (I can) or produce a winning back hand on the tennis court (I can’t). Photography was for holidays and special occasions and not much in between. In the days before social media and personal websites, a work colleague once asked me for printed copies of my photos after a trip to...
Join us while we chat with freelance photographer Dominik Friess, who is our 76th In Focus interviewee. Dominik's main focus in photography is portraiture, as it is the form of photography that resonates with him the most because of the uniqueness and depth that each person carries within themselves.
SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND
SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU?
I don't believe I have an 'all-time favorite' as such. I've taken many photos on ILFORD fil...
Is a Photograph a Photograph if it Was Not Made with a Camera, Lens, or Negative?
The ethereal color palette and expressionistic qualities of the work I have been making with ILFORD's photographic paper seemingly resemble the representations of light and color as seen in many landscape paintings (think J.M.W. Turner, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole); however, the work in my on-going project, I Thought You Left / I Wish You Were Here, are lumen prints—a form of camera-less photography where objects or a neg...
What would happen if I dedicated myself entirely to film photography?
More then a year ago I had this idea in my head. What would happen if I dedicated myself entirely to film photography? After 10 years of being a sidekick to my creative output, I felt the need to give more attention to my analogue passion and the desire to change my creative habits. To challenge myself. To no longer rely on the vague promise of the digital safety net of mass storage and a camera screen that promises instant judgement of ...
FILM AND DOCUMENTARY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY
Only in 2022, I bought my first film camera - a Minolta X700. Right from the first film I was absolutely in love with shooting analog. Working as a documentary family photographer I am drawn to the honest and unfiltered truth of family life. For me, analog photography and documentary family photography converge, weaving elements of rawness and unadulterated truth. There are no hundreds of images, meticulously sifted through for the best; no embellishment through hour...
“You learned the Mr. Miyagi way”
Hi, Carlos here, my story with film photography started in the mid 90’s. I learned from one of my neighbours, a former engineer that dropped his career to become a professional fashion photographer He had a nice studio, he was very technical and made me learn all the technicalities before I could even take photos. It was not much fun at first as I was a teenager eager to get out and just shoot photos. Well, my first assignment was to read The Zen in the Art of Archery...
I Instantly Fell In Love
My photography journey began while I was studying graphic design. My course tutor handed me a camera & a roll of ILFORD HP5+, and sent me out, with no real brief, to ‘take some pictures’. Armed with a macro lens I roamed around the cities’ botanical gardens and became lost in a close-up world of symmetrical patterns, found in the plant life. When I returned, with my roll of film, to the photography department darkroom, I instantly fell in love with the process and the res...