A Fist Full of Film

This is the Rebellion against overproduced images often in the digital world. These are images made from my film cameras. Each image I shot myself. The subjects are often friends, and acquaintances in their world.

The Canary I’ve never been in an active coal mine.  And canaries if they aren’t associated with convicts divulging secrets to wardens and chain gang bosses, are often referred to in coalmines.  Their usefulness being their sensitivity to poisonous gases that would otherwise kill a man if there were more doses of the stuff. Well the thing that can kill us here in LA is traffic.  It makes us late to meeting, it makes us lose our sensibility in traffic, it cajoles us to actually taking the time to figure out the nuances of the different neighborhoods.  It prompts us the desire to have a stylish car, so you can just sit in it.  Traffic here is the single largest unifier in LA.  We all live and die by it, we plan life around it.  We live life in it.  And sometimes we try like balls to avoid it.  Coldwater Canyon or Beverly Canyon?  Nah, I just took Ventura to Laurel and then over to La Brea into Miracle Mile.   So when I’m collecting my thoughts in Malibu, and discovering shipwrecks, and I meet this girl, Allie, and her dog “Zuma,” its comforting to hear her when she says,” I wouldn’t take Las Virgines back.  Its jammed completely I just came back from it.” Its these moments that make you feel more human and less of a city block.  Its having the common decency to a fellow man versus being lost in the oblivion of anonymity.  We make introductions, and I meet her dog.  A special kind of dog from what she is describing.  What I marvel at its darker than black fur, save for the small pink tongue that would appear and disappear on every bark.  I ask to photograph, as I have the Rollieflex primed and ready for her last frame of the roll.   My framing felt good since I had a complete full body shot of the dog, and the legs of Allie entering the frame.  It was like Muppet Babies and how you could only see Nanny’s legs.  The only problem was Zuma was camera shy, turned away, looking back towards the girl.  So Allie dropped down, gave the dog comfort and it turned my way, I adjusted frame and fired.  Afterwards I realized that Allie’s skin was too bright, since I was exposing for the dog’s coat and so was the surrounding area around her, I thought there might be some latitude to read with, but alas, an 80 ASA is hard to play with.  The ghost/angelic look for her is quite other wordly, and is distracting in some ways, but its all part of the one shot aspect of film.  Just throw it out and there and see where the chips fall.  You just might have a happy accident. Malibu, CA Rollieflex 2.E8E  80mm Schnieder-Krueznach Agfa Retro 80

The Canary

I’ve never been in an active coal mine.  And canaries if they aren’t associated with convicts divulging secrets to wardens and chain gang bosses, are often referred to in coalmines.  Their usefulness being their sensitivity to poisonous gases that would otherwise kill a man if there were more doses of the stuff.

Well the thing that can kill us here in LA is traffic.  It makes us late to meeting, it makes us lose our sensibility in traffic, it cajoles us to actually taking the time to figure out the nuances of the different neighborhoods.  It prompts us the desire to have a stylish car, so you can just sit in it.  Traffic here is the single largest unifier in LA.  We all live and die by it, we plan life around it.  We live life in it.  And sometimes we try like balls to avoid it.  Coldwater Canyon or Beverly Canyon?  Nah, I just took Ventura to Laurel and then over to La Brea into Miracle Mile.  

So when I’m collecting my thoughts in Malibu, and discovering shipwrecks, and I meet this girl, Allie, and her dog “Zuma,” its comforting to hear her when she says,” I wouldn’t take Las Virgines back.  Its jammed completely I just came back from it.”

Its these moments that make you feel more human and less of a city block.  Its having the common decency to a fellow man versus being lost in the oblivion of anonymity.  We make introductions, and I meet her dog.  A special kind of dog from what she is describing.  What I marvel at its darker than black fur, save for the small pink tongue that would appear and disappear on every bark.  I ask to photograph, as I have the Rollieflex primed and ready for her last frame of the roll.  

My framing felt good since I had a complete full body shot of the dog, and the legs of Allie entering the frame.  It was like Muppet Babies and how you could only see Nanny’s legs.  The only problem was Zuma was camera shy, turned away, looking back towards the girl.  So Allie dropped down, gave the dog comfort and it turned my way, I adjusted frame and fired.  Afterwards I realized that Allie’s skin was too bright, since I was exposing for the dog’s coat and so was the surrounding area around her, I thought there might be some latitude to read with, but alas, an 80 ASA is hard to play with.  The ghost/angelic look for her is quite other wordly, and is distracting in some ways, but its all part of the one shot aspect of film.  Just throw it out and there and see where the chips fall.  You just might have a happy accident.

Malibu, CA

Rollieflex 2.E8E  80mm Schnieder-Krueznach Agfa Retro 80

4 months ago