Unpretentious film photography in digital age

[jimgalli]

Actually I'm doing my damndest to make pretentious fine art but all my pictures are just unpretentious drivel. I rarely print though.

 

[Max Freedman]

Actually I'm doing my damndest to make pretentious fine art but all my pictures are just unpretentious drivel. I rarely print though.

I would argue it's difficult to discern fine arts photography without a trained eye. The joy of photography (especially analog) is how you can intersperse different events and images within a single roll of film. Look at Daido Moriyama's work for example. It's just a simple look into how he sees his part of the world.

 

[removed account4]

With everyone using their smartphones to take the odd snap of their surrounding, I wonder, does anyone here take ordinary snaps on film, develop AND make darkroom prints on a regular basis, put prints in albums and have a look at them from time to time..., like so many amateur photographers of decades ago?
No "art", big format, etc. prints, just unpretentious, album-size prints of everyday life, and stuff/people one finds interesting and worthwhile photographing?

hi miha
I've seen your thread pop up and out since October and I have wanted to answer it but I haven't known exactly what to say. Most of what I make with and without a camera is just from the urge to press the button or put something on photo paper. Sometimes I print things (contact print usually but once in a while through an enlarger) but usually I make them digitized because my time is limited but still, I just like to see what things look like in the 2D-photographic form. I don't attempt to make anything pretentious the jury and peanut gallery and other - others will decide, I am just fulfilling the compulsion I have to just make something, anything ... as often as I can. Photograms of weeds in the backyard, in camera POP type prints while I twiddle my thumbs, wandering around (well not so much for a little over a year) with a camera/film, instantsnapppies of my coffee or goldfish in the amusement tank, grass on my scanbed .. its the exposure thing for me I guess and then the prints come later. I don't process film as often as I used to, maybe 2 or 3x a year (its been 14months since I did it last) and I processed about 30 rolls—I have bag of about 15-20 rolls left(and I haven't exposed any for since fall 2019)... I don't have any photo albums that I fill, I have drawers full of paper that turned grey that I throw out every year (the pop-esque prints can't be fixed) but I have a visual diary of sorts in my computer- whenever I make something it goes in a folder in my hard drive going back 2 decades, and I have stuff I upload here and my insta-(gratification)-feed cause im addicted to the premium dopamine rush I get from my 2 likes, it makes it all relevant. Being marooned has made it hard to get out, but thankfully art craft, bostic and Sullivan, the formulary, Jerrys artarama, amazon and the sun haven't gone away
stay well, stay safe
John

 

[foc]

Every photo I have taken (at home) in the last 20 years I have had printed & scanned.
My wife enjoys putting them into albums.
Every so often we take out a few albums and have a look through. There is always laughter and smiles and stories and smart comments about how we looked in this photo or that.
It beats any hour of Netflix.

 

[CMoore]

I take most of my kids snapshots using film. B&W film at that, and odd formats. It's really a timeless look and I get to print them. I don't print in the darkroom much but I scan every single frame with a DSLR which is about as much work as making a print honestly. So my kids will look back at their childhood in black and white and color shifts. Yes, I use a digital camera from time to time and my cell phone. The vast majority of photos are on film though, about 100 rolls a year ranging from 16mm/110 up to 4x5.



Montreal? I wonder if you've got any of my cousins in those shots.


16mm on microfilm

Messed up development temps but I still like the snap.

Dom you remember How/Where you metered this shot.....the barber shop photo.?
Great job BTW..!!!

 

[ParkerSmithPhoto]

With everyone using their smartphones to take the odd snap of their surrounding, I wonder, does anyone here take ordinary snaps on film, develop AND make darkroom prints on a regular basis, put prints in albums and have a look at them from time to time..., like so many amateur photographers of decades ago?
No "art", big format, etc. prints, just unpretentious, album-size prints of everyday life, and stuff/people one finds interesting and worthwhile photographing?

I keep a box of 5x7 RC paper handy which I use for family prints and also for giveaways when I run back into people. At 52, I am learning to appreciate the ease of RC paper!

 

[Cholentpot]

Dom you remember How/Where you metered this shot.....the barber shop photo.?
Great job BTW..!!!

Thank!

It was a Stylus Zoom of some sort. Might have been an MJU. Color+200. I'm not happy with the colors in the photos, the yellows are all wrong. The barber shop is a corner shop so it has windows on two sides and mirrors. Lots of diffused light. I loved shooting in there, the owner is the nicest fellow. Haven't been in there since COVID(tm) has come to town. I have some more shots from in there from the past.

HP5+, Promaster 2500k Super, Vivitar 28 2.8, 1/30th f/2.8 HC-110 DilA.

Some way expired film in a subpar camera with a subpar lens in night lighting conditions. It's gritty and I like it.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

I love this ^^^^ picture

 

[Saganich]

I've been documenting my weekend life in monochrome for nearly 20 years, including family, friends, enemies, streets, bars, nature, and travels all in some mad conflation of art as life. I usually print when someone asks for one and then I get some momentum and make a batch, else I generally can never decide what to print so I have multiple projects in various stages of editing, never-ending and always in the background above the noise.