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How It Began
Queering Rural Spaces began as I was personally starting to think about where my wife and I would settle down to start our family. A part of me missed living on a farm. However, I wasn’t sure I would feel safe being in an openly gay relationship in a rural area. So I began to look for and talk to people who were already living those experiences. For the past two years I have been meeting and photographing LGBTQIA+ farmers who live or work on a farm in rural areas of the United States.
S...
We speak to Lauz Cam, who is our 67th In Focus interviewee. Laura is a London-based self-taught photographer. Her love for film photography started through her budding interest in vintage cameras and has grown ever since. Laura intends to keep analog photography alive by capturing portraits of individuals in a nostalgic way.
Section 1 - Background
Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you?
I think my one of my favourite images is this self-portrait as it was ...
“I’ll just fix it in the darkroom.” is the motto I’ve lived by for decades.
I Was Too Deep Into Analog
Studying photojournalism in the late 80s, I was taught to print well but never learned advanced printing techniques because we were being prepared for quick turn-around journalism assignments. Commercially available digital photography was in its infancy, so it wasn’t on my radar, and even when it became standard, I was too deep into analog to have any interest. I shot for a local paper for se...
1969
After too short a visit to Athens’s Parthenon in 1964, I vowed to return soon. By 1969 I was standing on the deck of a wave tossed Yugoslavian freighter with my back to New York City. Watching the grey, stormy, November Atlantic from the quiet of the Navigation Bridge was a peaceful retreat. Our first port-of-call was Casablanca. As a travel companion I had Greek philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis's book, Report to Greco, basically a story of Kazantzakis's search for his identity. It seemed a good read...
Finding Your Niche
I never expected to be doing what I do today. For some reason, it never crossed my mind that I could photograph people for a living. I struggled a lot through university. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy my classes, but I truly had the hardest time finding my niche until the last year or two. I knew I loved working with film. Digital was nice, but too sterile for my taste, and I felt that I could never achieve the look I was aiming for. 35mm was a step in the right direction. It provide...
I Instantly Fell In Love
My photography journey began while I was studying graphic design. My course tutor handed me a camera & a roll of ILFORD HP5+, and sent me out, with no real brief, to ‘take some pictures’. Armed with a macro lens I roamed around the cities’ botanical gardens and became lost in a close-up world of symmetrical patterns, found in the plant life. When I returned, with my roll of film, to the photography department darkroom, I instantly fell in love with the process and the res...
It was the perfect film to learn with
I’ve always loved shooting portraits, and the first medium format film I used was ILFORD HP5+, shooting portraits in high school with the Rolleiflex TLR that I still use today. It was the perfect film to learn with — forgiving and rewarding. When I started directing music videos in my 20s, I brought that Rollei to set to take press photos between set ups. Around the same time, I was working as Ava DuVernay’s director’s assistant on the Netflix series When They ...
In this 'Behind The Film' interview, we head back to R&D to speak to Kieran Collings who joined the company in 2023.
WHO ARE YOU? WHAT’S YOUR JOB TITLE HARMAN TECHNOLOGY AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED HERE?
Hi my name is Kieran Collings, I am a Scientist II in the Research & Development department. I joined in August 2023 straight from University.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR DAY TO DAY ROLE.
I work in the early development team, specifically on sensitising dyes that are needed for the films to b...
We're thrilled to announce our ILFORD Photo USA Student film photography contest.
With both darkroom printing and scanned film categories (along with a fantastic teacher prize), and some amazing prizes to be won from both us, ILFORD Photo, and our amazing sponsors, Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation, UsedPhotoPro, Peak Design, Negative Supply LLC, The Darkroom, Photogenic Supply Co and SISSILU, there are plenty of reasons to get involved and start shooting!
Contest Dates:
The contest is now open for...
A Revelation
Just south of Sydney sitting on one of Australia’s most pristine coastlines you’ll find the regional city of Wollongong. Nestled within this city of surfers, coal miners and steelworkers you’ll find a group of students creating big things in a small darkroom.
‘Mez, I’ve been thinking a lot… I want to be a fine art black and white film photographer.’
These words from one of my TAFE NSW students, Sara, were delivered with a shakiness in her voice, utter passion in her heart, ...