photography
Hi. Happy new gregorian year.
At the beginning of 2023 I told myself that I would take pictures with and develop a roll of film. I ended up doing three this year.
The first roll that I developed had been in my old camera for a long time and, aside from a few photos of my cat that I took to finish up the roll for this project, I could not remember the last time I used it. I deemed it safe to use for a practice run.
I'll spare you the details of the developing process. Like most things, it was intimidating before I did it but actually doing it wasn't so bad.
Once it finished developing there was hardly any visual information on the film and I was bummed and thought that I fucked up. Turns out there were some photos on there and once I really looked hard in the light I could see them. Although it wasn't until I scanned them that I could really figure out what they were. The film had deteriorated so much that the colors were stripped down to one or two of the cmyk colors and only made sense once I converted them to black and white.
These first three photos were taken in Wisconsin when I turned 30. Hathaway and I stayed at a small cabin for the weekend. Out of the entire roll only that third one had any usable color left.
I was encouraged! So I developed a roll of new film that I took over this past summer. The first 12 or so developed just fine, but then the rest of the roll was blank. I think there was a camera malfunction (from me improperly loading the film) and it stopped advancing correctly. I'm basing this theory on the multiple exposure accident that happened in the second of these two photos. After that accidental art project the rest of the roll was blank. Not too bad though!
The third roll was an expired roll that I used in a different camera. I was stoked that the entire roll came out. Some people are into the crazy chaos of expired film. I can take it or leave it. I don't think I'd seek it out as an intentional thing, but I wouldn't avoid it if someone gifted me a bunch of old film.
I find I don't take pictures all that often. When I was younger I constantly took pictures of my friends, but now that I am grown more and aware of others besides myself, I recognize that many people don't enjoy having their photo taken. I do enjoy the process of taking photos and, now, developing negatives so instead of people, my plan is to focus on other than humans that take my attention.
Thank you for reading!
Keep loving, keep fighting and FREE PALESTINE!