I would define film photography as grainy and raw. Some of Yasaman and Giacomo’s photos taste old and new at the same time. Anyway, the golden hour light of that day was breath-taking! I am overall pleased with these results, considering that it was my 1st experiment with the eos 850. Enjoy!
When I asked Olivia if she wanted me to take portraits of her using the old analog camera Nikon F801s or the fresh new digital one, she giggled and whispered: “The film camera”! This reminds me of my mum, when she would take photos of me and my brothers on film during our childhood”. Well well, Olivia is the 2nd young model (she is a Gen Z!) to prefer film images, as I had the same response by Anagha a few weeks earlier (and she is the same age of Olivia). They must be both fun of soft images and of the film grain 🙂
We found some spots in the back garden and, under a grayish sky with a chilly air, we managed to work together and to laugh! Olivia is a pleasure to work with and her “joie de vivre” is bouncing out from some of the pictures, I find. We also got the help of an unsuspected photo assistant (my landlord Ian!). What more could we possibly need?!
Anagha is in her early 20s and is a student and one of the tenants in the house where I live. I love her common sense, simplicity and also her innocence. Last week-end, when I asked her to pose for me, she cheerfully accepted (blessed youth!). What hit me was that, when I asked her whether she preferred me to shoot her with my new digital body (R6 II) or with my old film Nikon camera (f801s), without hesitation, she replied : “Your film camera, please. This kind of pictures reminds me when I was a child and I was being shot in film by my dad”. Well, the rest is history 🙂 the results are below. She fit flawlessly into the spring context of our garden: she was indeed a flower between the flowers. And if you look carefully, in one photo some daisies emerge from her beautiful mane!
Cathal is a friend from Northern Ireland who lives in Dundee. He came to Edinburgh and was very keen to visit the Botanical Garden, as he had never been there before. I offered to take some portraits of him, after some convincing, he accepted 🙂 He is one of the less complicated and most open minded people I have the pleasure to know. He is proverbially calm and humble, he is stedfast and has a positive attitude towards others. He inspires confidence and is trustworthy! He is a digital artist and an IT guy who always provides me with first aid for my blog which is (annoyingly enough!) a constant work in progress!! A couple of details that you can easily spot while scrolling down his pictures: 1) how outstanding Cathal’s deep blue eyes are?! 2) the yellow-orangey-reddish color cast of the leaves provide a strong, breathtaking background 3) how good is my old Nikon F801s?! 4) any encouraging feedbacks about the B&W ones?
I recently had the chance to spend a long weekend in York with the girls. The vibes of this city are unique: everywhere you can savour bits of history in its narrow and twisting streets, as well as in the local architecture. I mean, what did not happen in York?! York as a community for the Vikings; as a crucial and defensive crossing point between England and Scotland; the origin of a branch of the house of Plantagenet, that was involved in the war of the Roses. York also as birth place of Guy Fawkes. And York Minster stands out of one of the most amazing buildings in Northern Europe! The walls are worth a long walk and…somebody believes that the city centre inspired JK Rowling to create Diagon Alley in her Harry Potter books. The National Railway Museum did produce interest for some (so many trains in one huge hall!). Rowntree’s Kit Kat was invented there too!
What else can I add…I took these pictures with a 1992’s Nikon F801s film camera. A very grateful Thank-You to the lovely staff of York Camera Mart that helped me remember how the camera worked!
Captain Stéph, below!
Pictures taken back in October 2021 with my Nikon F801s.
Maria Buttafoco, classe 1988, di Parma. Ci siamo incontrate tramite amiche comuni una decina d’anni fa. E’ una persona che stimo e per cui nutro un sincero affetto. Il conoscerla ha avuto un impatto sulla mia vita, in parte perché le nostre esperienze e i nostri caratteri, sotto certi punti di vista, presentano delle similitudini, in parte perché ci accomuna la passione per la fotografia intesa come strumento di scoperta e conoscenza, di noi stesse e del prossimo. E’ modesta, timida e talentuosa. Partendo dalla natura e dalla street photography si è concentrata negli ultimi anni sulla ritrattistica. I suoi scatti, delicati e raffinati, parlano di poesia e di ricerca, emanano vita e malinconia.
Mi sono permessa di porle un paio di domande sul suo approccio al mondo dell’arte e della fotografia e lei ha risposto, in modo semplice e chiaro. A noi il piacere di ascoltarla!
Come e quando ti sei avvicinata alla fotografia?
Idealmente mi sono avvicinata alla fotografia da bambina, praticamente, attraverso la macchina fotografica, poco più di dieci anni fa; regalai una compatta a mio fratello che però portavo sempre con me, fotografando di tutto fino a renderla una mia estensione
– Cosa ti trasmette la fotografia? Perché ti piace fotografare?
Il mio lessico non è abbastanza vasto e profondo per potere rispondere a questa domanda. Un sentore di pienezza e di nostalgia.
– Quali soggetti preferisci?
Preferisco soggetti come le giovani donne, con un’estetica particolare e straordinaria, al contempo mi piacciono le persone anziane, moltissimo; mi interessa l’idea di poter raccontare una storia attraverso la fotografia e loro ne hanno molte da raccontare, subisco il fascino della loro cultura intesa come tradizione e tempo.
– Come fai per approcciarti ai soggetti che fotografi?
Approcciare il soggetto per me non è semplice, sia per carattere che per logistica, è qualcosa a cui sto lavorando tanto.
– Colori oppure Bianco & Nero: quale preferisci? O dipende dai soggetti e dalle circostanze?
Colori e bianco e nero. Per me dipende dall’ideale che porto con me quando scatto e dal taglio che vorrei dare all’immagine.
– Quanto tempo passi in post-produzione? E’ una parte molto importante per te del lavoro?
Passo molto tempo in post-produzione, non per una questione di sviluppo tecnico, ma, soprattutto quando si tratta di una foto a colori, per riprodurre i miei sentimenti attraverso tonalità che la rendano più vicina al mio immaginario.
– Guardando il tuo portfolio, mi colpiscono la delicatezza e il gusto che hai nel cogliere la natura e le persone…Chi o cosa ti ispira? Ti prepari prima di uno shoot?
Ti ringrazio di cuore per le tue parole.Sono felice che tu abbia colto una delicatezza che desidero tanto rappresentare quanto provare; delicatezza, gentilezza, verità e quotidiano sono alla radice della mia ispirazione. Solitamente mi preparo prima di scattare, ma l’emotività, i desideri e la sintonia che può nascere (o no) con il soggetto sono alla base del processo creativo.
– In base alla tua esperienza e al tuo percorso, avresti un qualche consiglio da dare a chi sta iniziando a fare foto?
Il mio percorso è ancora in divenire, per cui se posso consigliare qualcosa, è qualcosa che deriva dai miei errori: non auto-sabotatevi, abbiate fiducia in voi stessi e nei vostri desideri, accogliete le critiche dosandole con giudizio. Non arretrate, guardate avanti.
Elegant, reserved, powerful, a perfectionist and able to create unexpected images. Giovanni Gastel was a theorist in photography and during a long lasting career he contributed dignity to his art. May he rest in peace.
Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1909 and there she died, almost a century later, in 2001. She was a writer and a photographer. Her father, an amateur photographer, passed on the camera’s passion to her, and Eudora started taking pictures in the late 1920s. A relatively prolific writer, she published short stories and novels for various magazines and she worked also as an advertising agent and a radio operator.
In my utter ignorance, I didn’t know her at all. I didn’t even know that she had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her novel “The Optimist’s Daughter”. I discovered her portfolio recently, whilst I was doing some research on Afro-American portraiture in deep South, and I bought a book with her photos (see photo below). At first glance her photos made quite an impression on me: I was struck by the spontaneity and the unconventional situations she managed to capture. However, on a second viewing, I noticed a certain lack of technicalities in lighting, composition and framing.
She had a streak of genius and the sacred fire of art was within her. I wonder whether she considered herself a real photographer. As Aries, she was tenacious and did not lack in courage. In fact she was a rebel and a pioneer, for the type of photos that she took and for the subjects that she chose: mainly people of color and the poor classes around the Great Depression (30s), through to the 60s. Taking the camera in her hands allowed her to document the struggles and aspirations of the under-classes that were invisible and ignored. I don’t believe she had a constant self-confidence, even though probably she didn’t let others know this. But at the same time, I don’t think that she really cared what other people thought about her and her work.
Well done, Eudora, your qualities are an example to us all!
Arianna was almost 2 years old when I took these shots of her (with an old film camera) and she totally was in the game: she was such a tiny, shining poser! The image (below) where she is carrying the bag wins it all!
Elena Arvasi Portrait Photographer 