since I’ve taken any photos with 35mm film, or any film for that matter. Ever since I first got a digital camera I thought that would be all I’d ever need and that my days with film were done. I was very, very wrong.
In recent months I’ve been drawn back to film in a big way. Partly due to the fact that a lot of the work that I admire is shot on film, but more so because I’ve become very lazy with digital. It’s rare that I get a picture that I’m truly happy with as it’s just too easy to take a dozen photos of the same thing without really thinking what I’m doing. And because of this my camera isn’t always with me, as it should be. I’ve missed the excitement, anticipation and challenge of not knowing how things are going to turn out.
When I first fell in love with photography, I took my time with it. I thought a lot about what I was doing and I knew next to nothing about it at the time which made me think that much harder. I took thousands of shit photos so was ecstatic when I took one I could be proud of.
The following are from the first roll of film I put through a little Mirage 35 EE, which seems to be a knock off of a Chinon 35 EE, which in turn seems to be a knock off of the Konica C 35. I picked it up on Portabello Markets in London when I was there in June for my brother’s wedding. The guy was asking a tenner for it, I got him down to £5 by pointing out how filthy it was – it looked like someone had been keeping it in their tobacco pouch for the last 20 years. It’s been with me every day on the walk to and from work, where most of these were taken.
Whilst I’m not particularly proud of any of the photos that I’ve ended up with, the excitement of shooting on film is just as tasty as it was when I got my first roll developed over a decade ago.
J
