The Photographer:
“For the final assignment for my film photography class.

Concept:

This is the antithesis of the Ansel Adams type, quintessential landscape photo.

Instead of being perfect and crisp and accurate… instead of using extremely precise exposure with well-defined accuracy using the zone system and other techniques… this photo is everything that those things are not.

This photograph was shot on 35mm in a 120N Holga. However, while that type of photography yields imperfections and “happy accidents”, there is still an amount of precision and technique that goes into shooting this way. Because, of course, while you’re playing a sort of guessing game, you certainly can’t just go into it blindly – it won’t work that way. You have to make extremely educated decisions on exposure, perhaps moreso than you do with the zone system and such techniques, because you are, in essence, shooting in the dark.

This is something that I have been working on a lot during the past month or so – and I feel it is developing into somewhat of a personal language. This lo-fi, imperfect, accidental experimentation with photography is wonderful – I have fallen very much in love with it. I gave up my other idea – to revisit the self-portrait – for this. Alternative landscape, at its best. )

Process (thought I would add this in case anyone was curious):

35mm Kodak 125PX black and white film in a 120N Holga. It’s really easy, and doesn’t really require any extra manipulation to the Holga…. you just have to tape up the window really well, using a few pieces of cardboard and loads of tape. Tape alone will not work – you’ll get light leaks.

You should wind about 28-30 clicks between frames – you can do less or more depending. It will yield you about 16 shots. Once you’re done with the roll, you have to leave it in the Holga and take it out in a darkroom. In the darkroom, you can unwind it from the spool that was in the Holga and wind it back into the cannister, and then process it yourself, or take it somewhere.

To print this, you need a glass plate in the enlarger, in place of a negative carrier. Using a negative carrier won’t show the sprocket holes. When you print it, it will always be just a little shorter than your paper, if you print for the entire length.

For these images, I printed on glossy fiber paper, and then sepia toned them. You need bleach and sepia toner to do this. This also brings out the numbers, I found. In black and white, it was somewhat difficult to see the numbers. ”