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HARMAN technology Limited, trading as ILFORD PHOTO, is a global market leader and the only manufacturer in the world to provide a full range of black & white film, darkroom paper, photochemistry and ancillary products. For over 137 years, generations of customers have demanded the very best. And this is why they continue to choose ILFORD. Operating from our manufacturing headquarters in Cheshire, UK. Our products are shipped around the globe and into the discerning hands of beginners, enthusiasts, stud...

People often ask me why I love street photography so much, my answer is always “you never know what you are going to come across, depending on where you are and sometimes that can be from minute to minute”  let me explain… Photography is my passion I am very lucky that after a career spanning 28 years as a professional advertising photographer I now feed my soul teaching my passion which is street photography in some of Europe’s most exciting cities, often in areas people wouldn’t norma...

"I have yet to see — much less produce — a colour photograph that fulfils my concepts of the objectives of art." Ansel Adams. The Tetons and Snake River (1942) Photograph by Ansel AdamsPhotograph by Ansel Adam© The Ansel Adams Publishings. Collection Center for Creative Photography Rights Trust Some of the greatest and most iconic photographs ever taken have been in black & white. Masters such as Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson, Sir Don McCullin, Mary Ellen Mark and Sebastiao Salgado to name j...

Hand colouring The idea of adding colour to a monochrome image by hand dates back to the beginning of photography. At this time it was the only way to get a colour photograph. Although colour photography using the three colour process was put forward just short of thirty years after the first photograph by Nicephore Niepce,  it was, in its early years, expensive and difficult to produce a colour image. Hand colouring became a practical way to give the impression of colour and everything from Daguerroty...

9th March 2017 ILFORD PHOTO announce the winners of their 2016 UK Student Competition ‘Pretty Ugly’ With almost 1000 entries, from schools, colleges and universities across the country, the 2016 competition witnessed an exceptionally high standard of darkroom printing which took several rounds of judging and plenty of debate before the winning images were selected. The standard was so high this year that the judges have also awarded an additional three images as highly commended along with the over...

24th February 2016 After another year of record entries HARMAN technology Ltd announces the winners of their UK Student Competition 2015 "Saturday Night at the Movies" At just short of 1000 entries, it took the judges several hours to decide which image should be selected as the winner. The standard was so high this year that the judges felt they couldn’t limit their choices to a single runner-up and have instead awarded four runners-up prizes along with the winner. The title of ‘ILFORD PHOTO St...

26th July 2016 ILFORD Photo (HARMAN technology Ltd) are delighted to introduce 'ILFORD inspires’, a series of events aimed at broadening the appeal of black and white film photography to a wider audience. The first of these events takes place on August 4th in Philadelphia, PA and features an insight into and showcase of the incredible work of artist, educator and master printer Chuck Kelton. Chuck’s feature talk will describe his experiences working with some of the most iconic photographers of...

25th February 2015 HARMAN technology Ltd announces the winners of the UK Student Competition 2014 entitled “Motion”. The annual competition for UK photography students attracted a record entry for 2014. So many that it took the judges two sittings before they could decide which had met the Brief and complied with the competition Terms and Conditions. After long deliberation and several rejections the winners were finally chosen. "Light in the Dark". Winning image from Elliott Jagger from Leeds Col...

General FAQS Where can I find technical information about your products? We provide a comprehensive set of technical information to support all our products. Links to the technical information can be found on the product pages on the website. Advice for Airport X-ray scanners: Film & papers We are working with the DFT and Heathrow airport in the UK and will shortly be updating our information relating to the new CT type x-ray scanners being installed at major airports worldwide. Based on our init...

20th August 2014 ILFORD PHOTO confirm no plans to discontinue XP2 SUPER Film following the recent announcement that Kodak Alaris is discontinuing KODAK PROFESSIONAL BW400CN Film.   ILFORD PHOTO can confirm that there are no plans to discontinue ILFORD XP2 SUPER. This product continues to be in free supply throughout the world from ILFORD PHOTO Distributors and Photographic Retailers, and is available in 35mm and 120 formats as well as a 35mm Single Use Camera. ILFORD XP2 SUPER is an ISO 400/27�...

Film and single use cameras How long after exposing can I leave my film before processing? For best results, we always advise processing soon after exposure although in practice most films can be left for several months. One exception is ILFORD PANF Plus, we would always advise processing this film as soon as possible and certainly within 3 months of the film being exposed. How do I account for film reciprocity during long exposures? This information can be found in the Film Reciprocity Failure Compensa...

Photographic Paper FAQ's Which paper product is best/suitable for photograms.  All of our ILFORD photographic papers will easily produce photograms, so the choice will depend on which surface finish you prefer and whether or not you want fibre or resin coated. Resin coated paper is lower cost, easy to process and dry flat and would be a good choice for starting out. Does reciprocity affect paper? Paper products are designed for much longer exposure times than film and are less sensitive to reciprocity...

ILFORD PHOTO offer the biggest range of black & white films on the market today. While this is perfect for experienced film photographers who love having a choice, we appreciate that it can be a bit confusing for people new to film photography. If you are looking to try film photography for the first time and are wondering where to start, then you have come to the right place. We should start by pointing out that there is no ‘wrong’ choice when it comes to ILFORD films. They are all fantastic,...

Processing your own film can speed up your workflow and give you quicker access to your negatives. It is also typically more cost effective and best of all there is nothing like the sense of satisfaction you will gain by taking control over the full end-to-end process of your photography. While trying it for the first time might be a daunting prospect, fear not. Below is our guide on what equipment, chemistry and method would be suitable for anyone new to processing films. For more detail, you can downlo...

Why print? When you can get excellent prints from your black & white negatives by sending them off to commercial processing laboratories, why make your own? For many photographers, making a photographic print is as much a part of the process as shooting the image itself. For a start, it is a creative process that is both enjoyable and fulfilling and, much like the role of a post processing tools such as Photoshop or Lightroom in any digital workflow, (although much more fun) a darkroom provides film...

The first stage of making a darkroom print is to determine the exposure time. If you have already created a contact sheet of your negatives, and they appear correctly exposed, then you should have a rough idea of the necessary exposure (provided you haven’t moved the enlarger head or aperture setting after exposing the contact sheet). Note: If you change the degree of enlargement you will also need to adjust the exposure. Some enlargers have scales printed on their columns to make this easier. Another...

What are film developers? Film developers are a photographic chemical that turns your exposed film into working negatives as part of a processing workflow. (You will also need a stop bath and fixer - for more information on how to process your film or which chemistry to choose read our guides). We offer a broad range of film developers that are designed to exploit the different characteristics of our films. Developers are available in either powder and liquid concentrate form and have a range of charact...

Having shot a roll of black and white film it now needs to be processed to create the negatives. At this point your film is still light sensitive so should not be exposed to light. Processing your own film can be highly satisfying and cost effective. It is also easy to learn. The most common method for hand processing film is undertaken by using a Daylight Processing Tank. This piece of kit needs the film to be loaded on to a ‘spiral’ or ‘reel’, in the dark, and then enclosed in a light tight co...

Contact sheets are a great way to review and record your images. They allow you to view all the negatives on a roll of film before deciding which ones you want to print and how you may want to crop them. They also provide a permanent record of those negatives for filing purposes. How to make a contact sheet To make a contact sheet we recommend using ILFORD MULTIGRADE RC DELUXE Set the enlarger head to a height that gives a 40cm (16in) wide rectangle of light on the baseboard Put a MULTIGRADE fil...

Filters have long been a popular accessory for photographers and offer a number of different functions or effects. In both analogue and digital photography it is possible to recreate some of these in the darkroom or digital darkroom. However there has always been a benefit to getting it right in camera. In black & white photography, colour filters in particular are useful as they can control how the colours in a scene are reproduced as greys. Normal black & white films are sensitive to all wavele...

Retouching is normally done to remove blemishes from the negative or the final print. It can also be used to change the tone or remove unwanted detail.  As retouching can be difficult, care is required. Advice for retouching The most risky retouching techniques involve removing parts of the image, by bleaching, cutting, or scraping with the edge of a sharp knife. The addition of density is generally less risky, and can be done using dye, paint etc, or a suitable soft pencil. When retouching prints from o...

A black border often enhances a print and does not involve any sort of mounting or overlay. Ink or tape borders The easiest way to produce narrow black borders is to rule them with a pen directly onto your finished print: an India-ink pen gives the most solid line, but most permanent (all surface) spirit based markers are much less expensive and will do the job. For slightly wider black borders, narrow, self-adhesive strips are available from graphic arts suppliers. Supplied in dispensers, of various w...

Mounting your Prints Even the most stunning print can look better when it has been properly mounted. Mounted prints are also better protected as they are kept flat with the image separated from the immediate surroundings by unobtrusive margins. There are no hard and fast rules about mounting prints; the most suitable results will depend on individual preference, the nature of the image, the intended use and other circumstances. It is recommended that only boards and other materials intended for the p...

Split grade printing The version of split grade printing described here is that taught to me by the ILFORD head printers, Mike Walden and Terry Offord, and is the simplest, fastest way to make good darkroom prints from pretty much any negative. (The exception is really underexposed negatives to print these you usually only need high contrast). This is a very powerful technique that can be used routinely with variable contrast (VC) papers, such as ILFORD MULTIGRADE. It makes use of the differing performa...

1992 - How I met Masterji Soon after leaving my staff photographer’s position on the local newspaper where I’d been employed for the previous 5 years and with the luxury of in-house film processing no longer a convenient option I began using my local city centre professional colour lab, in Coventry. During the accumulating hours I spent in that lab waiting for my 35mm films to process, watching small colour prints dropping from the conveyor belt from the end of the machine, I very watched a short In...

I’m a passionate film photographer. There are plenty of us about and indeed plenty of reasons for choosing film as a medium. Many of these reasons are quoted ad nauseam by any and every film photographer. One of the biggest problems I have with digital photography is that it's given film photographers a soap box to waffle on about how much better film is… Yawn… I’m going to make some assumptions about the audience of this blog, and as such I’m not going to repeat all of the justifications usually ...

My name is Charles, I do film concert photography since September 2014. I chose analog over digital because I like to do things with my hands instead of using a computer. I mostly use HP5+ film (pushed to 1600 ISO) which I find very powerful in difficult light conditions, it’s a good compromise between precision, grain, and dynamic range. Concert photography is easy and difficult at the same time. It’s easy to take a picture of a charismatic singer on stage, but is this enough to have a great photo...

How I work I believe in self-learning, and I’m always up for something new to explore. I adhere to a strict code of conduct and don’t believe in photoshop, or do much if any post processing. It has to be an exceptional day for me to crop an image. I use Ilford’s Delta 400 for most of my work and use XP2 Super when I need my results fast. Changing times I was born in 1988, which meant that I got a first class ticket to experience the world converting from analogue to digital during m...

ILFORD PHOTO offer an extensive range of black & white photographic paper. A photographer's choice of paper is a subjective decision based on personal tastes and preferences. It can also be impacted by the type of images you shoot and the final look you want to achieve. Papers all have different characteristics and purposes and so this guide will walk you through the terminology and choices available to help you pick the perfect paper for your darkroom printing. Base: Resin coated versus Fibre base...

One of the best things about film photography is that the creative process doesn't end in the camera. Processing your images in a darkroom is not only great fun, but it also allows you to exercise complete creative control over the final look of your image. We cover some of the essentials needed to set up a darkroom in our beginner's guide and have also developed a series of short animations which cover essential darkroom equipment, darkroom safety tips as well as how an enlarger works. Below, we cov...

All ILFORD Inspires content has a common goal: To inspire people to try traditional analogue black and white photography by showcasing the power and potential of this highly creative medium. New York Silver Stories Working with the talented team at Exploredinary, this series features four short documentaries telling the stories of silver gelatin darkroom printers in New York City. The Bronx Documentary Center - Turning Negatives into Positives Founded by Michael Kamber, the BDC is a non-profit aimed at ...

HARMAN TECHNOLOGY LIMITED – PRIVACY NOTICE HARMAN technology Limited is committed to respecting the privacy of our customers and the users of our website ilfordphoto.com (the Website). This notice is to explain how we may use personal information we collect before, during and after your relationship with us. This notice also explains how we comply with the law on data protection and what your rights are. References to you, your and yourself in this privacy notice are to either you as an individual or...

The last six years I picked up my first camera about six years ago, and I haven't looked back since. Well, not on my choice of beginning Photography, but I have looked back on my choice of cameras. Over the past six years, I've achieved quite a bit, and I've enjoyed every moment of it - from my first exhibition to running my own photography gallery. However, I'd always felt that there was something that I was missing out on. Photography, for me, is an art form that allows you to be creative and passion...

Photography has always been part of my life Zero Image pinhole camera 4x5, Ilford FP4+ sheet film 4x5 When the digital age began, something happened to me. First, I mourned my photo hobby for about five years, then "gave up" and bought a digital SLR. A couple of years passed and I upgraded to a more advanced model, but soon realised that it gave me no pleasure at all. I was just so bored with my images. About this time I realised that film photography was not at all dead! I found the Lomography societ...

Introduction I’ve been a photographer for 35 years since I was 11 in fact when I first loaded my Zenith 11 with film and set off for a walk into the wilds of South Yorkshire. 20 years later I turned professional and as soon as digital became a viable option I traded in my Nikon F90x and Mamiya 645 pro for a Nikon digital kit. Digital was for me always a triumph of convenience over real quality in those early years and not much else. It wasn’t until Canon brought out the 5D series that I found myself ...

The Start I had previously experimented with photography, but nothing too technical. To my astonishment, I managed to capture some really good images and the bride and groom loved them. Using the positive feedback I received from them, I kept hold of the camera and began to research techniques. I began with my pet dogs (many photographers favourite models), then moved on to young family members and babies, then to asking friends if they could travel to a location with me and let me shoot them. Taki...

My first time in Afghanistan For the last couple of years, I have been travelling and exploring the people and culture of the Middle East and Central Asia. Visiting these countries is always inspiring and fascinating to me. In 2016, I visited Afghanistan for the first time. At this time I switched from photographing both digital and analog to one hundred percent analog. The reason is simple. I love the handling, the manual process of film photography. It feels real and timeless. It is also practical, t...

Zone focusing is arguably one of the quickest and most effective methods of focusing your camera. With a little forethought, practice and pre-visualisation of your shot, it's a method that can reduce problems like shutter lag. Ensure your images are sharp every time. And help you take photos more surreptitiously. It doesn't rely on automation and, in most cases can be put into practice before you've brought the camera to your eye. I believe it's a core skill and a method that everyone who takes photograp...

Jokulsarlon Two For our inaugural 'How I got this picture' post, we're talking to Dave Kirby about Jokulsarlon Two. One of the beautiful images in his Iceland series.   Jokulsarlon Two ©Dave Kirby Film Used – ILFORD FP4+ Format - 120 film in 6x6 format Camera - Bronica SQ-A Lens – 80mm PS Exposure time – 57s Other equipment – The cheapest, naffest tripod money could buy (now broken), 10 stop filter, hat!   Location Jokulsarlon, South Coast, Iceland....

Man of science I love alternative photographic techniques like dry plates and brushed on emulsions. I am a darkroom fanatic – always exploring new ways to mash up digital with traditional analog techniques. I love all kinds of print processes – cyanotypes, salts, van dykes to name a few. I shoot all formats right from 35mm half frames up to 8×10 large format. I am also an avid camera collector but prefer to be a user rather than an admirer of my cameras. I currently use a Nikon F3, Leica M-A, Hasse...

On Reading — stealing from the best Nearly all of my photographs organize themselves into loosely defined, open-ended projects that are never finished but often stop at an interesting place for a portfolio, show, or hand-made book. People often ask; “Where do you get ideas for your projects?” British photographer and educator, David Hurn says; “Our advice to photographers is best expressed by Calvin Trilling: ‘The immature artist borrows; the mature artist steals.’ So steal from the best....

Self-portraiture as Catharsis My photography is a form of therapy, a personal, emotional and sometimes turbulent struggle with the complexity of emotions. I feel my life and art have become intertwined and to bury this mental state deep within would only allow it to thrive but through my use of photography, I am offered a sense of catharsis. My self-depictions manifest within the same four walls, my bedroom. The room I believe is the keeper of my trapped and repressed emotions. This often heavily constr...

A family of photographers It’s difficult for me to imagine my family members without their cameras. I grew up in a family of photographers. This seemed so natural to me, that, as a child, I thought all my friends at school had photo labs at their grandparents’ house. For years, underneath my bed, sat my great grandfather’s wooden photographic chamber, along with its imposing tripod. Ilford FP4 Plus / Hasselblad 500CM / Sonnar 150mm Fujifilm Acros 100 / Hasselblad 500CM / Distagon 50mm &nbs...

  Earlier this year we agreed to take part in @EMULSIVEfilm community interviews and these are the results. Over to you #EMULSIVE Back in mid-May 2016, we invited you all to submit your questions to Ilford Photo for the second in a new series of community interviews here on #EMULSIVE. As with the first, the premise is simple: we collect questions from you, the film photography community, package them up and then work with the interview subject to get them answered and published. Well, we’...

Where the Hasselblad love started long, long time ago, I can still remember how— Hang on, let me start again… When I were a lad, mankind did something utterly astonishing: men walked on the moon. For a 13-year-old science geek, staying up till <mumble> o’clock in the morning to watch this historic event was possibly the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me. For a 13-year-old budding photographer, the cameras that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were wielding held a strong...

A black and white film community Since film is no longer the primary domain of professionals, it’s been adopted again in earnest by passionate individuals that produce legitimate work. In this age of instant gratification, infinite dynamic range, and auto-everything, it’s nice to rely on a predictable and high-quality medium. I shoot HP5+ almost exclusively. It’s everything I want in a black and white film. It’s flexible, widely available and fits right into my workflow. I’ve played both...

A little background I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela.  My chosen field of study was production engineering, but was I taking photography classes in the evenings and began working for a super cool magazine called Urbe, which is a bit like what Vice is in the UK now. I quickly became the chief photographer shooting all kinds of amazing and interesting people, and it was then that I knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life. Looking back it was quite an interesting time - I’d be learnin...

Potential Disruption To Product Supply In The US On Friday August 25th the US distributor of HARMAN technology products (WYNIT) suddenly and unexpectedly halted its distribution activities. This affected our products (branded ILFORD Photo, Kentmere and HARMAN, as well as for Paterson and Agfa color film products).  On September 8th, WYNIT subsequently entered Chapter 11 proceedings. Throughout September we have implemented a direct supply arrangement for retailers in the USA, as an interim measure, to...

We didn't see the usual glut of images for our #speed themed #ilfordfridayfavourites. However, the ones that we did receive were great. These are the ones that we liked the most @jwgalleryuk Cross country. #largeformat #4x5 #ilfordfp4 #believeinfilm #speed #ilfordfridayfavourites   @davewooff #ilfordfridayfavourites #Morris FP4 plus on a Yashica MAT   @jwgalleryuk #wakeboarding is not my usual subject matter but enjoyed the challenge of shooting action on #ilfordpanf ;) #spee...

Sharing my skills I’ve recently started working as a lecturer on BTEC and HND photography courses at Swindon College. A job which I’m enjoying immensely.  Teaching was something I’d never considered before, until I started helping friends who were studying on the same BA Photography course as me.  I enjoyed helping them but most of all I enjoyed seeing them understand and use the skills that I’d shown them. I now teach mainly 16 – 20-year-olds, which is enormously satisfying. Watching thei...

#ilfordfridayfavourites #Halloween You shared a spooktacular amount of boo-tiful  black and white #spooky #Halloween images for this weeks #ilfordfridayfavourites. We parked our brooms, dug out the trick or treat candy and chose these scarily good shots as our favourites. Special congratulations to Ais Chuahiock who shot our favourite image "Catacombs of Paris"  @aisbaby My most Halloweeny shot.  Catacombs of Paris, with FP4 (+ very steady hand) #ilfordfridayfavourites #Halloween #believeinfil...

An appreciation of Ilford FP4 The greatest pleasures can be taken from the simplest of things. An appreciation of something old that gets passed by while everyone tries to keep up with the crowd or the relentless progression of technology.  For me Ilford’s FP4 is one of those little pleasures. The RAF I was a photographer in the Royal Air Force from 1986 -1995.  At my RAF unit we had little choice of film stock.  It was FP4 and HP5 for black and white. Being stationed at a headquarters unit mean...

Taking the plunge I'd had this roll of Ilford HP4 for a good few months and was hesitant to put it through a camera. The fact that it was so pristine in it's condition made me feel that whatever I used it for had to be significant. I had to wait for the right opportunity. As the weeks passed,  I began putting unnecessary pressure on myself to plan a shoot around this one film. It was sitting on a shelf, judging me. At this point I decided to stop procrastinating and just shoot the roll, regardless of w...

Nolton Haven Technical info Film Used FP4+ Format 35mm Camera Nikon F2 Lens 20mm F3.5 AI. 25A red & 2stop ND filters. Exposure time 30seconds Other equipment Manfrotto tripod, Weston Lightmeter. Location Nolton Haven is a small narrow bay on the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales.  It sits between the two much larger beaches of Druidstone and Newgale. Its characteristic feature are its two almost near symmetrical headlands.         Firstly, tell us the...

#Cold This was definitely one of the most popular #ilfordfridayfavourites that we've run, making our job of choosing just a few of the images really tough. - We couldn't all agree on five so there's a couple more than usual!   @DrMarsRover The forest @ILFORDPhoto HP5+ | Bronica SQ-A#cold #ilfordfridayfavourites   @WellerMonica Cold day at Denbies vineyard, Dorking, Surrey #cold #ilfordfilm #ilfordfridayfavourites @alberttim2   @craig58 #ilfordfridayfavourites This is som...

Tranquility Alan Brock searches for a sense of calm in his images. He shares how he achieves it below Technical info Film Used: Delta 100 Format: 4x5 Camera: Intrepid 4x5 II Lens: Nikkor 180mm f/5.6. Shot at f/45 Exposure time: 40s Other equipment: Gitzo 1545T Tripod Location:  Parksville Lake Tennessee     Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? I like to search for a sense of calm in my images.  In a lot of ways this fits my...

A medium for the moment  I always travel with my 35mm SLR and a stack of Ilford HP5 and Ilford FP4 film. I definitely prefer the look and process of shooting film when traveling and photographing on the street and I find my small SLR with it’s 50mm lens is small and inconspicuous enough to capture intimate street portraits. Shooting everything on the same 50mm lens and film medium gives my work a consistent look and feel. I have always found shooting film slows down my process, it forces me to think mor...

Project Statement Since the 1950s, over half of traditional orchards in England have disappeared. This is due to development, conversion of land to other uses, and intensive farming. The Orchard Project is dedicated solely to the creation, restoration and celebration of community orchards. Working in collaboration with the national charity, I visited sites under restoration. I created pinhole cameras out of apples at each location. Utilising these site-specific cameras, the work captures team members, v...

The Grand Canyon at Plateau Point Technical info   Film Used:  ILFORD FP4+ Format: 4x5 Camera: Wista 45DX Lens: Rodenstock: 90mm f/4.5 Exposure time: 1/60th Other equipment: Red filter Location: Plateau Point, Grand Canyon National Park     Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? One weekend at the last minute I decided to do a full moon hike to Plateau Point in the Grand Canyon. My plan was to hike down around ...

ILFORD Photo UK student photographer of the year The increasing popularity of film photography in schools and colleges has seen a record number of darkroom prints submitted to the annual ILFORD PHOTO student photography competition. The high standard of entries from schools, colleges and universities across the country has made the selection of a winner a very difficult task. However, a unanimous winner has been chosen and the title of ‘ILFORD PHOTO UK Student Photographer of the Year 2017/18’ has b...

It's really inspiring to see how many of your are developing your own black and white films. Hopefully our recent YouTube video will encourage a few more of you to have a go! These were some of our favourites from the many submitted this week. @curtis_kularski  Nikon F portrait of F6. Delta 400 in ID-11. f/2.8, 50mm, 1/100   @oliverdegante Ilford HP5+ on Tmax Dev 1+4 8min #fridayfavourites #homedev #believeinfilm   @DBloomsday I #homedev almost all my photos, so let's show so...

Images with feeling The most attractive element of analogue is its delicacy. The analogue process has remained so ingrained into my practice, I can't imagine working in any other way. Seeking images which stir a feeling within and seeing that image through each stage of the process to finally create a hand-made darkroom print. The print may not be perfect, I do not tirelessly work on test strips creating a technically perfect image, I never leave the confines of the darkroom to inspect the print once it...

An experiment in chemical possibilities When I took up a camera after a few years’ hiatus in 1990, I was surprised to discover that I could no longer get a black & white film developed through the nearest camera shop, never mind through the local pharmacy.  If memory serves, I was told it would cost $40 for a single film. Naturally, I returned to processing my own film just I had done when I first took up a camera in the early 1970s. The world had moved on, and colour film was the default medium f...

Tree #8 Technical info: Film Used: Ilford FP4 Format: 6x7 Camera: Mamiya 7ii Lens: 43mm Exposure time: 3 min Other equipment: Lee Filter holder, Lee 4 stop nd, Lee Red #25 filter, B&W 105mm Polarizer, Gitzo Tiopod, Acratech Ballhead. Location: Zion National Park Tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? A couple good friends of mine who know Zion quite well introduced me to this fantastic little tree last Fall. The tree is about 9 feet tall and high up on a ridge ...

An Interest in Large Format Large format is an immensely rewarding and enjoyable way to make a photograph. It can also feel overwhelming when you’re just starting out, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. This article is for anyone with an interest in large format. I got into 4x5 because I wanted to challenge myself, and to try something new. Over the last two years it has become my favourite way to take a photograph. There’s something special about slowing down and being so deliberate with each...

Our XP2 SUPER film is fantastic for scanning as it works with Digital Ice so we had high hopes for this weeks #ilfordxp2 #fridayfavourites. Did you know you can shoot XP2 SUPER at different speeds from 50 - 800 asa on the same roll and process as standard C41? moodymcmoodersn Inside the Octagon Tower of Ely Cathedral Canon AE1 Canon FD 50mm Prime Lens #Ely #catherdral #cambridgeshire #shadows #light #contrast #CanonAE1 #ilfordxp2 #35mmfilm #filmsnotdead #abstract #blackandwhitephotography #bnw #black...

A recent development Photography on film is a recent development in my workflow , (My black & white solution), and I have been making an effort to shoot film alongside digital on all of my major assignments, as well as for my personal work. It only took one assignment for me to realize that although the use of film was novel it wasn’t offering anything different to my ability to tell a story within a 35mm frame. There are so many ways to achieve a different “look” to your images, usu...

Road Trip In October of last year, I sold most of what I owned at that time and went on a 10,000-mile road trip across the American West, capturing all of it on film. Among the few possessions I brought with me, my reliable medium format camera Bronica SQ-Ai and 100 rolls of ILFORD HP5+. Along the way, I photographed the tallest trees on Earth, the coastal Redwoods in Northern California; the volcanoes of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest; the oldest trees in the world, the Bristlecone Pines in t...

Heading West Last September my family and I headed west. It had been a few years since we’d visited the West Country, we had come to love it when our family was young, and now that they were grown we decided to return to see if it still has a special place in our hearts. While my teenagers packed their essentials - clothes and iPhones, and my other half packed enough books to keep a large reading group going, I set about doing the important task of packing my camera equipment. My focus was on which...

No matter how tough a theme we set for #fridayfavourites, there are always a selection of great black and white #ilfordphoto #film images to choose from. These are our picks from this week's #work theme. @timdobbsphoto "Men at work" .. Nikon F100 on ilford HP5+ @ 3200 for #fridayfavourites #work #ilfordphoto #believeinfilm   @PaulPhotographe #ilfordphoto #work #fridayfavourites Outram Rodeo @Lovedunedin 2013 @NikonUSA FE10, @ILFORDPhoto 400(?) @NZGeographic @dsamaddar I generally don't ...

HUNTING ISLAND XVI, 2018  Technical info Film Used    Ilford Delta 100   Format    4x5 Camera     Chamonix 045N-2 Lens     Fujinon SW-90 Exposure time   Approx.2 minutes Other equipment    Sand & shells, to taste. Location: Hunting Island, South Carolina, US.   Tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? This March, I was in Charleston, South Carolina, and had a day to burn. I started looking around for somewhere cool to check o...

The Outlaw Project shooting portraits with a large format camera The Outlaw Project, was inspired by Edward Sheriff Curtis, the 19th Century photographer, known for his portraits of native Americans, shot with a large format camera. In 2011, Peter acquired a giant copy camera, made by Sidney R. Littlejohn Co., in the East end of London circa 1926. The camera, though having been used heavily in the newspaper industry for copying documents, was generally in working condition. With its inner mechanical str...

It looks like there are a lot of you who are proud to be films photographers and rightfully so! These are our favourite shots from the ones that you shared with us for this week's #fridayfavourites #pride theme. @hejrevell Two Pub workers taking a break in Kotor, Montenegro. ? ILFORD HP5 Plus Film ? Leica M7 | 50mm Summicron lens. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #pride #35mm #leica #AnalogPhotography   @keithdmercer #HP5Plus - ideal for the conditions! #fridayfavourites #pride #CoxwellBarn #...

Crumble We always enjoy finding out the stories behind some of the images that you share with us and we couldn't resist asking David Allen about this image. Technical Info Film Used: Ilford HP5 PLUS Format: 120 (6x7) Camera: Mamiya RB 67 Pro-S Lens: 90mm/3.8 Mamiya Sekor Exposure time: 1/100 Other equipment: Changing bag with an extra 120 spool. Location: Top—Philadelphia, PA | Bottom—Bradley Beach, NJ Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to s...

Beginnings I came to analog photography late. I enjoy being able to feel the film and create with my hands, and the suspense of not knowing how the final shots look until you develop the film. Shooting film changes the style of how I work.  I take less pictures and think more. It is more immersive, I have more time to feel their characters, their experiences. I shoot all my projects in medium format film.  I do use digital, but only for commercial photography or for working on reports. Materials ag...

Pepperwood 1 - Clyde Butcher Technical info Pepperwood Redwood Forest #1 Avenue of the Giants State Park, California 8x10 inch Deardorf view camera 90 Snyder Super Angulon XL lens no filter Delta 400 film f/45 exposure: 10 minute  Printed on: ILFORD Multigrade fiber base Tell us the story behind this beautiful image Long before I became a photographer, the redwood forests of California left me in awe. The enormous size of the trees - and their feeling of eternity - captured my soul. In 196...

London Fashion Week Earlier this year I shot my fifth season of London Fashion Week. I’ve been trying to incorporate new and different styles into my fashion photojournalism work, in order to stand out and also to exercise my own creativity. I’ve been shooting at London Fashion Week for about as long as I’ve been photographing professionally. It’s a great environment, fantastic for networking opportunities, building a decent portfolio of industry standard work, and also for experimenting with new t...

Terrain This project recently exhibited at the Golborne Gallery, London Road Trip All the photographs in this project were taken over a week-long period whilst traveling from Los Angeles to East Arizona, and back again. Something that really struck me when traveling through this part of the American West was how nature had relinquished control of the landscape. The towns were almost post-apocalyptic; half-burnt trash piles and concrete curbs were cracked by the hot sun. Whilst blade...

HARMAN technology Ltd, the manufacturer of ILFORD photographic film, darkroom paper and chemicals, has announced the ILFORD SIMPLICITY range of photo chemicals designed for convenient, easy-use film processing. The ILFORD SIMPLICITY range of film processing photo chemicals have been created for convenience and ease of use. These sachets are ideal for photographers who want to try processing their own film but have until now been apprehensive about the process and/or may not have required the larger volum...

Of course, we see in color - but vision is just one part of how we sense the environment and moments. In the mountains I see tremendous peaks, I feel and hear the storms, freeze, and feel emotions from success, failure and intense personal experiences. All that black + white can convey more intensively - for me this is not a reduction over colour photography, but an amplification of impressions.  This is the translation of a short text I wrote a few years back for the German Schwarzweiss Magazine. Si...

There was this one scene I wanted to capture.  I stumbled upon it walking up Old Man Coniston in the Lake District just before reaching the peak.  Out of nowhere (unless you’ve studied an OS map) a body of water appears when approaching from the east. As we reached the water’s edge, the sun was bursting through the clouds for the first time in days. The light was fantastic, catching 2 large boulders protruding from the perfectly flat, reflective water with the hill layers mirrored on the surface. ...

My love for film is strong, but it wasn’t my first photography love. When I first started out as a landscape photographer my focus was on digital infrared. I was drawn to the unique view that it captures. Last month my two photography loves came together when I was given some SFX200 Extended Red film by ILFORD. When I shoot film I use a different set of skills to when I shoot infrared.  One of the most important elements of shooting infrared digital is the quality of the light - the distribution and o...

Thank you In 2018, we invited the global analogue film photography community to take part in our latest film users survey. The survey, which attracted 2100 participants when it was last conducted in 2014, grew to over 6,800 participants from 100 countries this time around.  This was largely due to the help received from the fantastic film community in sharing it far and wide on social media, blogs and forums, so thank you. While many of the results are in line with the growth seen since the re-emergenc...

Mindtraveller Technical info Film Used: ILFORD HP5+ (pushed to 3200) Format: 120, shot as 6x7 Camera : Mamiya RB67 Pro SD Lens: Sekor 50mm f4.5 Exposure time: 20 minutes Other equipment: Tripod Location: Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, Canada Tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? In the Canadian Arctic, we are gifted with the otherwise-evasive Aurora Borealis on almost a nightly basis.  On many nights, the spectacle is nothing more than a faint gre...

A beautiful and inspiring place Last year (2018) I was introduced to the Bale Mountains, a part of Ethiopia I had never seen before. Surprisingly, in the 8 years I have been traveling to Ethiopia, I have only recently begun discovering the many treasures this country holds. The Bale Mountains of southeastern Ethiopia is a truly beautiful and inspiring place with rich biodiversity and stunning geography. Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) sits about 400km from the capital of Addis Ababa. Within the park ar...

Towards the end of 2018 I was reviewing some of my Autumn film photography and feeling put off by the results. I've been working with film for some now in an effort to take advantage of the superior dynamic range. And, when shooting in strongly backlit scenes to move away from silhouettes and ambiguity and towards a more controlled journalistic style. Shades of Autumn I found that because of the diffused cloudy conditions in London I was struggling with my exposures and the overall look of my images. T...

ILFORD PHOTO’s annual student competition has once again unearthed some incredible talent from within the UK’s schools, colleges and universities.  In the competition’s 9th year students were tasked with creating a black & white image that encapsulates an inspiring line from a book, film, poem, quote or song. The image had to be shot on ILFORD or Kentmere film and printed by themselves in a darkroom. And the winner is... With over 630 prints received from 40 different colleges, this is the ...

Sharing the skills and the passion My name is Hank Webber and, together with my wife Marie, we own and operate Webbers Photography Within my family, I’m a third generation photographer. It all started with my Grandfather in the 1920’s who then passed the skills and passion to my Dad and his brother, my Uncle Joe. They, in turn, blessed me with the same passion; skills are ever evolving. Each of them believed that as they triggered their camera shutters, they were capturing a moment in time that woul...

I always say time is the most precious commodity there is. If you are doing something you love, it flies by faster than the speed of light. And if you are waiting for something, it can feel like centuries are passing by. If only there was a way to somehow stop it in it’s tracks and enjoy every second of it. In the beginning I used to be a digital photographer. It was all fun and games at the beginning. And it definitely did the job. It stopped time! I could keep track of my memories, look back ...

For some years, I have been visiting Central Asia. The region with its unique culture and people is always interesting to me. In spring 2018 I went to Kandahar, Afghanistan and from there to Mazar-i-Sharif and continued to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. During the trip, I got sick and it was not very enjoyable. In autumn 2018 I decided to go again and was excited to do it without sickness. Child During the Work The plan was to fly to Dushanbe and from there to continue to the Afghan border in Vanj and...

Further Film Adventures in the Future History I've been shooting film almost as long as I've been shooting skateboarding - Delta 100 & XP2, mostly. I really got into it around 7 years ago, when I began documenting the skate scene in my hometown of Nottingham. Unknowingly I started a continuous body of work that still has no end in sight. And I was just looking for something to keep me busy when my digital kit had died! Capturing the Community I recently put on a new exhibition,�...

Why haven't we used this theme before for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites? #shotat1600 has definitely been the most popular theme this year by far, which is why there are a couple of extra images in our choices this week. we couldn't get it down to just five! Thank you to everybody that shared with us. Let's hope that next week's theme of #pulledfilm is just as popular. @Darkflan79 #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites  @ILFORDPhoto Ilford HP5 #shotat1600   nilsscarbro Praktica BC1 with Pentacon...

I don’t know about you, but I have a “box of shame”. It’s where I keep all the photographic odds and ends of kit that I never use, but can’t bring myself to throw away. Well I’ve always felt it would come in handy one day, and it seems that day has come! This story really gets going when I decided I wanted to do something fun with my Konica Pop*, an 80’s classic point and click camera I picked up in a charity shop a few years ago. Odds and Ends By utilising some of these long-neglected items...

On April 15th in London, and many other locations around the world, a series of protests and demonstrations took place as an act of rebellion against systems of pollution and excess, which are causing rapid changes in the climate of our planet. I was aware that this rebellion would be taking place having attended a march a few days previous. I was excited to continue shooting in this environment and did not yet realise the scope of their action to unfold, or how rewarding it would end up being photographica...

ILFORD PHOTO Silver Ticket Paper Competition Will you be the lucky finder of one of our Silver Tickets? Where can you find it? We have placed the tickets in our most popular darkroom papers.   Packs in which a ticket could be found will either have a sticker placed on the lower right hand side or have the sticker integrated into the printed box print. 33 tickets! 1 Grand Prize Your prize will include: 1 x Intrepid Enlarger (when available) 1 x Paterson Film & Print P...

Turning your negatives into positives Reversal processing enables black and white transparencies to be produced directly from high quality films such as PAN F Plus, FP4 Plus and DELTA 100 PROFESSIONAL How it works It starts with the development of the negative image. This leaves the unused silver halide untouched, but it is not fixed, as it will be used later to form the positive image. After the negative image has been developed, it is totally bleached away using an acid bleach. This leaves the remainin...

We all enjoy shooting film and know that this makes us happy, (most of the time anyway)! For this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #happyfilm theme we asked you to share images of other things that make you happy @hejrevell Sava River view from Kalemegdan Park, Belgrade Serbia, ILFORD PanF Plus & Leica M7 | 50mm Summicron lens.#ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #happyfilm #Ilford @ILFORDPhoto #LeicaArchitecture #35mm #AnalogPhotography #film #FilmPhotography #Leica #leicasociety #LeicaCamera &nb...

In the summer of 2017 my friends, novice climbers, asked me to climb Elbrus with them. This is the highest mountain peak in Russia and Europe. The idea sounded great, especially because I have loved mountains since my childhood. But my campaign plan immediately included a large-format camera, with which I have been travelling for many years (mostly, of course, by car with a camera in the trunk). For a while I wondered if I should take a big camera with me too. Would it be better to take a Hasselblad? But...

Image: Double exposure portrait series Technical info Film Used: ILFORD XP2 Format: 35mm film Camera: NIKON F3T Lens: 50mm NIKOR-S 1.4 Exposure time: 1/60 Aperture: 5.6 Other equipment: - Location: Kyiv, Ukraine Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? I was attracted for a long time to the visual capabilities of multiple exposures. But I had no concept of how I could go beyond the simple multiple overlapping of frames, until I visited Marcel Ducham...

Image title:Echos Technical info: Film used: ILFORD FP4+ 125 Format: 35mm Camera: Contax 167mt Lens: Zeiss 50mm 1.7 Exposure time: 1/500 Location: Ekbatan-Tehran-Iran   Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? As a photographer my eye is constantly searching  for a specific composition,moment and emotion. It was a cloudy day and the music was playing in the air. In that very second I felt a sudden hint of inspiration that lead me to capture...

A Photographic Love Affair My love affair for photography was born out of my passion for music. In 1990, when I was 18, my late father took me camera shopping at the local mall because I thought it would be fun to photograph rock stars. He helped me select a beautiful Nikon SLR that I quickly mastered. Shot on Ilford XP2. I began shooting some of the biggest bands in the world and some that were yet to be known as they toured through the United States. My film of choice was Ilford XP2. I loved it b...

Making the Most of Life Around Me I don’t really remember a period of my life when I wasn’t making photographs. My mother got me my first point and shoot camera when I was about five. It was an ‘Action Man Spy Camera’ that took small 110 roll film. I loved the idea of blending in with a camera, trying to document what was going on around me without actually disturbing anything. I still love that. Isaac Lismore Australia When I was a teenager, I developed a great appreciation of skateboarding...

We are delighted to announce a number of exciting new products  added to our range. ILFORD MULTIGRADE RC DELUXE ILFORD announced the world’s first variable contrast MULTIGRADE paper in 1940 and in 2019, as we celebrate our 140th anniversary, we are pleased to announce the 5th generation of our best-selling MULTIGRADE RC Papers. MULTIGRADE IV RC papers (4th generation) were launched 25 years ago and have been hugely successful becoming the ‘go to’ black & white RC papers for discerning studen...

It can  be found in the most unusual of places and means something different to everyone, so we were expecting a range of shots for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #beauty. Thank you to everyone who shares, we really enjoy looking through your images every day and seeing how you choose to use our film. @JainNeej  @ILFORDPhoto #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #beauty Ilford Pan F 50 Plus with a Mamiya C330   @richard_pickup  Autumn light in the par 35mm Ilford HP5+ fi...

The Photography Show 14-17 March There's not long to go until this years Photography Show at the NEC in Birmingham and it's going to be a great one. (If we do say so ourselves)! There is going to be a far greater analogue / film presence at the show this year as the organisers have agreed to the inclusion of a dedicated ‘Analogue Spotlight’ area which will include some pods for smaller brands and a spotlight speaker area for those brands to do demos. Come and see us! We will be there on stand B93 ...

In late 2019, we invited the global analogue film photography community to take part in our latest survey. This time we focused specifically on darkroom printing. The survey ran for 1 month and had an incredible 5,439 responses from 87 countries around the world.  A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to offer your insights and share the survey for us. Why darkroom printing? We have seen sustained and continuous growth in film for a number of years. However, darkroom printing has not yet cap...

A mix of Art and Science As I write this, the UK and many other parts of the world are currently in lockdown thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus. This pandemic has meant the unprecedented closure of schools and the daunting prospect of home schooling our children – in my case 10-year old twins. Now, I’m not sure about other parents but I’m almost at the point where I can no longer blag my way through their homework. Rather than own up to this humiliating fact, I suggested I get them involved in a l...

As the Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc around the world, HARMAN is frequently reviewing its approach to the pandemic, incorporating the latest guidance issued by the UK Government into our actions. We stated last week that our principle concern remains the health and safety of our employees and this is still the case. We are also looking at how we can protect the business through this difficult time. As the situation escalates, we have had to take the difficult decision to temporarily cease produ...

Meeting Viktory I fell into dance photography quite by accident. I was a member of a meetup group of photographers in Boston, and one of the people I met at their events invited some of us to shoot in his studio with Viktory, a traveling ballet model. I was shooting landscapes almost exclusively at that time, and I had hardly ever shot with a model before. Luckily for me, Viktory is very experienced and was able to work with our varying skill levels. Little did I know at the time that I would still be shoo...

We recently had the pleasure of turning the tables on one of the stalwarts of the film photography community when we asked Em if he'd be the first of our interviews in the 'Lockdown Sessions'.  We're so glad that he agreed. What made you set up Emulsive.org and what were your initial plans for it? My-first-roll...-Of-35mm-film-Fuji-Superia-X-TRA-400-by-EMULSIVE EMULSIVE started as an idea in early 2015. I thought I should put up a blog where I could post a few photos and blog about stuff that I'd lea...

For the second of our Lockdown Session interviews we cornered another well known face in the film community, Hamish Gill. (We're just glad he could fit us into his hectic schedule)! Section 1 - The Beginning Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? Image by Hamish Gill shot on HP5+ That’s a tricky question. The above image is the one that immediately came to mind. I don’t darkroom print myself, but I did print at a workshop at AG Photographic a few ...

If you've ever held any interest in skateboarding then we're sure that you'll recognise Joe Brook, our third victim interviewee for the Lockdown Sessions.  Joe also featured in one of our 1st ILFORD Inspires videos. (You can find the link in his bio below). SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This is my favorite photo of 2019. I was on a skate trip with the Spitfire team and we were warming up at a skate park. A local t...

Selfish process? It can sometimes feel that many steps in my photography process are selfish. Some of these I can take as positive, for example the way I now truly photograph for myself and not to please others. (Aside from client based assignments), as was the case when I was locked into the social media game at the start of my photography experimentation. Other times however it can feel that I’m not doing enough to use my photography somehow to produce some visceral change in the world, despite my curr...

When we held our first Lockdown Session with Emulsive, we asked him who he'd like to see us interview in future and he suggested the very lovely Aislinn. (AKA The Film Pusher). SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I have tons! But let me share my recent favourite, the one that I had printed and hung on my wall. It’s a pinhole image of the Natural History Museum in London. It means a lot to me, as the NHM is a favourite visit ...

An object of beauty I have just been asked to explain why I use film to make many of my images….. well the simple answer is ‘I like the process….I love the total engagement film gives me. Working out how many rolls to take, what size film to take, packing it all up and hoping I haven’t forgotten my light meter. I love the reaction when I give somebody a print at 12 inches square in an archival sleeve. It’s an object of beauty, its tangible, it’s exciting, its more than a digital print…...

So many of us shared your first times with us for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #myfirsttime theme. We saw first film shots, first darkroom prints, first home developments and first time using paper negatives. It was tough to choose our favourites but we managed eventually! @its_jackturner#myfirsttime not only developing #ilfordphoto HP5, but first time EVER shooting HP5 #fridayfavouritesCamera with flash: Zorki 4?:HP5 (+1) Earth globe asia-australia: Bratislava, Slovakia @marc1701G Her...

The future of photography The year 2020, it sounds very futuristic to me. So, what does that future look like for photographers? Well, no doubt technology will be getting more advanced than ever and we will see huge leaps in digital development this coming decade as the megapixel war continues. There will likely be be new initiatives and more collaborations with smartphone companies. Will the digital SLR camera start to disappear? Will mirrorless take over? Or will there be a new hybrid on the market...

We've been following Dan Rubin's photography for a while now so were really pleased when he agreed to take part in our Lockdown Sessions. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU?   Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, 2016. Ilford HP5+ @ 400, Leica M6, Summicron-M 50/2 (Scanned by Canadian Film Lab) This was my first full day in Tokyo, on my first visit to Japan in 2016. The memory of wandering through the station during rush hour...

Early Experiements Many, many years ago I experimented with uprating HP5, I was a student and it fitted the look I was after at the time. In those days, information was difficult to find and I relied on advice from friends. As a student, the mysteries of film and processing were fascinating and strange. I tried all sorts of things, but didn’t know what was really going on. I knew that uprating meant setting a higher speed (ASA in those days) on your light meter and then giving it a longer development tim...

We first met Ray nearly 2 years ago when he agreed to be part of our 'Legends of Skateboarding' ILFORD Inspires YouTube series. We were blown away by not only his talent as a musician, photographer and artist but also his genuine humility as a person. He was one of the first people that we reached out to, to take part in the Lockdown Sessions and we were so pleased when he agreed. Read on to find out how he has been spending his time. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON...

Introduction I often see echoed this absurd idea that somehow film photography is more “pure.” Anyone who has ever been a part of a film photography Facebook group has surely come across a post along the lines of “how much editing in post do you think is OK with film?” And, without fail, there will be at least one response from the analog bourgeois which goes something like “if you’re going to edit *that* much, you might as well shoot digital. Why are you even shooting film?!” Sadly, we of...

Guy's Instagram caught our eye, with it's mix of 'camera porn', black and white film shots, and classic cars. We knew he was busy preparing for the launch of his clothing label, Ratino, later this year as well as publishing his quarterly car journal The Road Rat, so we were really pleased when he agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to take part. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I think this shot of Chris playing...

Familiar Places It's interesting to look with new eyes those places you're familiar with or have been before, that sidestreet you pass by every day after going outside the metro station can become a source of inspiration and even a breath of fresh air if you just pay attention to its surroundings. I traveled from Panama to the city of Barcelona to stay there for a few days (just before the world went on lockdown), to work on a personal project, catch up with some friends and of course to enjoy the c...

This week for our 9th Lockdown Session we spoke to Ashley Carr, who you may remember was nominated by Hamish Gill in week two. Ashley is a well know member of the film community and is always happy to share his thoughts and experience. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? ©-Ashley-Carr-2016,-Nikon-F3,-PC-Nikkor-35mm-shift,-HP5-@-EI-200,-Ilfotec-HC It was very difficult to choose a single favourite image! I think this photo...

Shooting Infrared film Infrared photography has always been a unique and niche art form, allowing a photographer to capture images seemingly from another dimension. I say niche because capturing that "perfect" image requires a different approach to pre-visualizing your scene, an understanding of the limitations of infrared and the ability to adjust your settings effectively for changing conditions.  For these reasons many photographers are reluctant to give IR film a try. This article will not only demo...

Is it really 10 weeks since we started this series? It feels so much shorter than that.  If you have an Instagram account we are sure that you will recognise our 10th interviewee Jahan Saber, if not by his name then by his tag @doyoudevelop.  Jahan was nominated to take part by Dan Rubin in week 6 and we're so glad that was happy to get involved. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? There are so many, so here’s a recent ...

Balance Like many photographers these days, I balance a busy day job alongside a family life. I try to be good a community member, share my thoughts and experiences and sometimes, perhaps, inspire one or two. In the background I have long held an aspiration to become a successful professional photographer, something i'm still working towards. Like all of us I suspect, finding something to focus on, photographically, can be a challenge when life is so busy. The majority of my casual photography currently...

I don't think it will be long before we need to change the title of this series! We really hope that you are enjoying finding out more about some of the members of our community. This week, for our 11th interview, we have Simon King. He is probably best know for is street photography and teaches short course on it at UAL. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I really find it difficult choosing favourites, so I have to give a bi...

We've really enjoyed this series and finding our more about some of the members in our community.  Although we are moving out of Lockdown now we will be keeping it running, just in a slightly different format, so keep an eye out for the changes in the coming weeks. This week we spoke to Robbie Jeffers who was nominated a few weeks ago by Ray Barbee. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? It’s difficult for me to narrow ...

My dream camera I was introduced into photography when I was just a teenager by my uncle Massimo —· AKA zio Max. That’s how I have acquired basic knowledge about film photography, and developed the skills that helped me to start a career as an independent —  and self-taught — filmmaker. Filmmaking and video production became my main occupation, while photography remained a deep passion, which kept coming back from time to time in my professional career. In the last few years I have been too...

In our 14th and possibly final Lockdown Session (before we move to a new format), we are bringing you Kit Young who was nominated by Ashley Carr back in week 9. We've followed Kit for a while on Instagram. He's a fantastic darkroom printer and is always happy to share how get gets to the finished prints from his negatives. SECTION 1 - THE BEGINNING SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? There are a lot, so I’ll pick this relatively recent print o...

We asked you to show us what you can do with the slowest speed film in our DELTA Professional film range for today's s #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #shotondelta100 theme. @jenthompsonart A few shots taken with my Pentax 645 on Ilford Delta 100 film #believeinfilm #filmisnotdead #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites   @henry_balen Eiffel Tower glass wall 2019 #fridayfavourites #ilfordphoto #shotondelta100   @UrbaniteAlaska River in a gorge a few hundred meters from the Monarch Mine ru...

We have loved finding out more about photographers in our community over the last 3 months in our Lockdown Sessions and hope that you have too. As we move towards less restrictions here in the UK, we felt it was also time for a new focus (sorry).  So we are launching the new series 'In Focus' this week by interviewing professional portrait photographer Craig Fleming. Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I love this shot that I took it...

This week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme was #shotonsfx. Designed to be used with filters. and with extended red sensitivity, we were really looking forward to seeing your images for this theme. samduncan156 #ilfordfilm #fridayfavourites #shotonsfx #ilfordsfx200 #ilfordsfx400   @AdibMufty Nature in a dreamy world! Camera: Hasselblad 500cm ?: Ilford SFX200 #filmphotography #believeinfilm #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #shotonsfx   @DanFedo #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #s...

Music. bonding and booze Clitheroe is a small market town in Lancashire, famous for its witches, good food and drink. And, (maybe) having the smallest Norman keep in England. Each September, it hosts the Ribble Valley Scooter Rally - a gathering with music, vintage clothing stalls, and a ‘ride-in’ of several hundred scooter enthusiasts. Previously known as the Ribble Valley Mod-Weekender, the event is a melting pot of different sub-cultures; Mods, Skinheads, Scooterboys, and every other conceivable spl...

We taking a closer look at Brett Hillyard this week who was nominated by Robbie Jeffers in our Lockdown Sessions back in week 12. BACKGROUND Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? One of my favorite images over the last couple weeks is from a portrait session I had with Jeff Yokoyama. He goes by“Yoki” and his retail store “YokiShop” is located in Newport Beach. His shop is filled with eclectic art and cool custom clothes that he designs in the bac...

A high-speed black and white film with a difference! XP2 is a versatile, fine grain, chromogenic film which means it can be processed with standard C41 colour chemicals. Thank you to everybody that shared shots with us for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #shotonxp2. @CarlosCarreter Minox 35 GT-E + XP2 Super. 3) Zhouzhuang All pictures taken in China, 2019. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #shotonXP2   Paul Taylor. One with the Lubitel 2, and one with the Lomo LC-A #ilfordphoto #f...

For interview number 18 in our Lockdown Sessions / In Focus series we are delighted to introduce you to Shima Rastin, a passionate film photographer from Iran. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? © Shima Rastin, Ilford FP4, Hasselblad 501C, Lavasan, Iran If we have not confronted the Covid-19 pandemic, and this question was asked before this era, it was probably a hard choice to make. Although, now that I experienced such an idiosyncrat...

Earlier this year my go-to black and white film of choice had its priced hiked astronomically, making it an un-affordable option for my daily choice. I set about exploring some different options, which included revisiting HP5 (a film, I must confess heretically that I have never gelled with), pushing FP4 to 400, Foma 400 and 200 pushed, and - the film for this short piece - ILFORD’s XP2. I might not have even reached for a roll of XP2 had I not discovered the experiments of another analogue photogr...

Lina Bessonova is a passionate film photographer and darkroom printer. She shares her love of photography and printing on her popular YouTube channel as well as through workshops and lectures. One of her recent videos shows how easy setting up a darkroom can be in a small space. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This image is from my very first roll of 120 film (Delta 100). The other 11 frames are average beginner pictures which make one h...

One of our most popular films and available in 35mm, 120 and sheet film formats. We knew that setting a theme of #shotonfp4 for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites would result in lots of great images being shared. We didn't expect quite as many as we received though! blacknwhite_matter - Dandelion - Palmas, Aveyron, France.#pentax6x7 #mediumformat  #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #shotonfp4 #ilfordfp4   analog_photo_pag Mountain Contemplations. Shot on Ilford FP4+, using a Bronic...

We love Sandy's beautiful large format shots, they always seem to have hidden depths. We are excited that he agreed to take part in the In Focus / Lockdown Sessions series and become our 20th interviewee. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? There’s a few I could post that I feel encapsulate the sort of feeling or thought process I have when I’m working on photos, but for me, so far? It’s this image. Photography means a lot of di...

Image title : Tombstone Technical info Film Used         FP4+ @ 125                 Format 4x5 Camera            Chamonix 45F-2           Lens Rodenstock Sironar-N 150mm f5.6 Exposure time   ⅛ sec Other equipment Feisol CT3442 Tripod legs, Acratech Ultimate ball head, Pentax digital spot meter Location Big Elbow Pass in Kananaskis Country in Southern Alberta, Canada Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot ...

This week we shared our latest 'How to' video on YouTube which is all about our range of photographic darkroom papers. As we knew this was coming, we thought we'd tie in this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #rcprint. thepaulgarlick You can't put a price on a dodo #blackandwhite #monochrome #ilfordphoto #leedsfilmphoto #kentmere #kentmere400 #rcprint #ilfordmultigradedeluxe #sculpturelounge #sculptureloungestudios #gaildooley (?) #fridayfavorites #minoltadynax7 #holmfirth #dodo #ceramic ...

Infamous on Twitter for his enjoyment of biscuits as well as being a well known name in the film photography community, this week we talk to Sandeep Sumal for our 22nd interview in this series. Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This shot was taken in Covent Garden, London back in 2016.  I had just recently started my film photography hobby.  It was an art installation and it was there over the Christmas period.  My early photos were a r...

Interview 23 is with Michael Weitzman. A film photographer, darkroom teacher and alternate and experimental process enthusiast. Michael was nominated back in June by Brett Hillyard. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? Northern Line. This photograph shouldn’t have happened, but I wanted to shoot in extreme conditions. It was 5 or 10 below zero with 15 - 20 MPH wind off the Missouri River in Great Falls Montana dead of winter. I came up to ...

John Whitmore is a 'sometimes' event and  black and white documentary photographer, a Darkshed owner, darkroom printer, YouTuber and Sunny16 podcaster.  We're really pleased that he took some time out of his busy schedule to become the 24th 'In Focus'  interviewee. Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? In some respects photography could be explained as one massive scientific research project, capturing data to show the state of atoms and ho...

It's week 25 in our In Focus interview series and this time we set our questions to Arkadiy Shlein who was nominated by Lina Bessonova back in August. Arkadiy is a Russian large format photographer and analog printer with a classical style. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I’ve got so many favourite photographs that I don’t have a single one hanging at home (yes, couldn’t decide :). This is one of them. I photographed this beech gla...

It's been over 6 months since we launched our first Lockdown Session and in that time we've spoken to many fantastic photographers and darkroom printers. Continuing in that vein, we're thrilled to share this week's In Focus interview with Nashville based, music and portrait photographer Laura E Partain. Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you. This photograph is now about 5 years old and I’ve shot many, many images on Ilford films since. Howeve...

An Englishman in New York As an Englishman in New York, I have always been in awe of the city I now call home. You could be uptown at a swanky Park Ave dinner party one moment and in a raucous Lower East Side dive bar sinking $3 PBR lagers the next. It is just so easy to get around this magical island - a major part of its charm and thrill. The stereotypes of New York’s profound energy, diversity and unrelenting drive are all true. This has provided daily inspiration me to pick up my Contax and go shoot ...

As well as being a photographer and darkroom printer, our 27th 'In Focus' interviewee Max Bedov also custom makes darkroom equipment based on his years of experience. Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This frame was taken in Provence on Ilford film Delta400 exposed as 640. Generally I am not keen on an astrophotography but this particular shot is very memorable to me for a several  reasons. 2016 -Alpa SWA 6x9 -DELTA 400 -Provence - MG...

We have known Keith for a long while and admire not just his photography, but his enthusiasm for all things film and darkroom and his willingness to share his knowledge and inspire others.  We're glad he agreed to take part in this series and become our 28th In Focus interview. We hope you enjoy finding out more about him. BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I shot this image in La Boqueria Barcelona with a fuji 645 camera. What makes it sp...

Well you have certainly kept us busy today. This has been by far the most popular #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme that we have had for a while. We have spent a lot of time going through your #filmpeople shots this morning and have finally narrowed our favourites down to the ones below. A huge thank you to everyone who shared with us on Twitter and Instagram. Let's hope that next next week's theme of #panoramic is just as popular! hannibal.bass Ilford HP5+ Canon Ftb #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites...

Toby Van de Velde takes centre stage this week as the 29th interview in our In Focus series. He was nominated by John Whitmore back in September who described him as 'Constantly producing wonderful analogue images.' Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This is a tricky one to answer. Narrowing it down is nigh on impossible. This is a recent favourite from a couple of months ago, shot on Kentmere Pan 400, shot in my Billora Bell...

Team photographer in quarantine I started shooting film when I was 14, that's more than half of my life! Since then it’s always the same excitement to finally see prints and scans. Somehow I never seriously dived into analogue indoor sports photography until corona. For the past four years I’ve been the team photographer of the HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim and they asked me to join them for the final tournament to finish the first basketball division in Germany. Ten teams, one hotel, quarantine till ...

Known for his fantastic images of urban and skate culture. (If you're not following him already then you should be). Rafael González is the 30th interview in our In Focus series. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I have so many photos I really like it’s so difficult to choose one specific but this one is one of my favourites I must say, I shot it during a skate session with my friends, nothing planned just cruising around th...

This image was one of the most popular that we shared on our Instagram feed last year so we reached out to @35.raw the photographer behind it to find out more. TECHNICAL INFO Film Used: Ilford DELTA Professional 100   Format:  120 Camera: Mamiya RB67 Lens: 50mm Aperture: F32 Other equipment: Red Filter Location: San Francisco Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? One of the first stops we always do when going to the Bay Area is the Golde...

Nominated originally by Keith Moss back in November of last year. David Collyer is the 31st interview in this series.  A documentary photographer who chooses to shoot around themes or projects. David's is probably best known for one of his recent projects All in a Day's Work which received international recognition. Section 1 - Background SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? Blimey! That’s like being asked to choose your favourite child and then expl...

A slice of London Isle of Dogs is the name of my second self published zine under Ducksale Press, a zine publishing project my friend James Moreton and I started a couple years ago. Isle of Dogs is also a slice of London: overdeveloped, underfunded, home to locals who were born on the island (“islanders”) and immigrants alike. But because the Thames makes a distinctive U shape around it, the Island stands out on a map or when viewed from a plane. I've recently learnt that German bombers, despite a Lond...

We've really been looking forward to sharing this week's In Focus interview with you. We've been long time followers of Tyler's work and were thrilled when he agreed to take part in this series. As described by Allie Evans 'He makes you feel like the impossible is always possible'. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I shared this image because it is one that without Ilford I would have never made, I fell in love with black and w...

I'm fairly sure that this week's interviewee doesn't need an introduction. Walter Rothwell is a multi award winning photographer and co founder of Street Photography International Collective. His website and Instagram feed are filled with striking street and documentary images from around the world. Section 1 Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This image is from a documentary I made in a leprosy hospital in Bangladesh. I was 19 when I start...

We're heading back to October last year when Arkadiy Shlein nominated Oleg Kasko to take part in this series after following his Instagram feed. Oleg is a photographer and passionate darkroom printer and advocate from the Ukraine. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I like this one because when you look at the photo you see a boat surrounded by white like milk, water. Although in fact it was taken at night. I decided I would leav...

The last days of Summer As the last days of summer drew to a close I worried about the stock of low ISO films I'd accumulated. As much as I’ve enjoyed my film only ventures over the last year I do worry about the availability of light in London where I do the vast majority of my shooting. Due to limited storage space I can only commit to shooting so many rolls at once, and with the long, bright days diminishing I needed to make sure I had room for as many 400 speed films for pushing (HP5+ & Delta 400...

My kids are a bit in awe of the week's In Focus interviewee and it takes a lot to impress them! Ryan Loco is perhaps best know for shooting fights, be that bare knuckle MMA  or WWE. More recently he has focused more on portrait photography and his images speak for themselves. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This is difficult for me, as I have a hard time liking any photo I take. But, since I have to choose, I'll use recency ...

Even when you have a love of film and traditional darkroom practices, there’s always room for alternative photo process experimentation as ecological photo-artist Josie Purcell knows well. OVERVIEW I am a photographer, but trying to explain that I specialise in photographic processes that may not include a camera has led me to describing myself a photographic artist. My passion for photography began in secondary school. There was a darkroom in the art class, but it was never used; it acted like a bea...

Nashville born Joseph Patrick or Photojojo was nominated by Laura E Partain back in October of 2020. Known for his creative shot choices and great use of light, we're excited to find out more about him. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This is one of my favorite shots. Here it was a combination of a few things coming together perfectly to create an image that perfectly aligned with my vision. The model is a friend I met the ye...

Growing pains The downtown skyline of Oakland, CA sky looks different now. Everyday new cranes tower over the city, stacking up floors of new condominiums and office buildings in the blink of an eye. The constant construction sounds echo the town’s growing pains, all the while a movement of artists from the soil work to maintain and preserve the heart, soul, and true voice of this beautiful city. As you travel downtown on 18th st towards Telegraph Ave, you will catch a stunning new photo mural on the sid...

This week's #carsonfilm has to be one of the most popular #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites themes that we've had. I'm obviously not the only one with a love of shooting cars! It's taken a long while this morning to choose just 5 from the huge number of images that you have shared with us, and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you poloczanski_mikolaj Zakynthos #hasselbladxpan #xpan  #ilfordphoto #ilfordxp2 #bnw #bnwphotography # #24x65 #filmnotdead #enjoyfilm #shootfilm #myfavouritefilm #fridayfavou...

An Unexpected Love My love for Iceland was born unexpectedly, I absolutely didn’t see it coming and it washed over me like a tidal wave in a monsoon.  We were planning a holiday of a lifetime. Somewhere with beautiful scenery to photograph, that was the only stipulation. It was more of an exploring holiday rather than the usual beach holiday we were used to. Countries were thrown in the ring, I really wanted to go to Sweden and my husband threw in Iceland. It’s like I didn’t even know it existed ...

365 Days A year is a period of time. It is 365 days. There have been many renditions of the calendar throughout human history, but it wasn't until 1582, when Pope Gregory pointed out a flaw in Julius Caesar's calendar, when we would receive our current amalgamation of determining time, the Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory pointed out a problem. Julius Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days off. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century, that the Gregorian calendar was fully accepted throughout Europ...

Number 37 in this series, which started a year ago as the Lockdown Sessions, sees us finding out more about Michael Watson. Nominated by Ryan Loco, Michael is a photographer based out of Des Moines who primarily shoots musicians and pro wrestlers. Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? Favorite is tough, I’ve shot most of the important moments or biggest opportunities of my life on HP5 for over 10 years. There are portraits of my parents that are really ...

The idea came to me after searching for companies to have a photobook made. I wanted something of the highest quality. Something that had the physical feel of Photographs: Annie Leibovtiz 1970-1990, or Helmut Newton Portraits. Two beautifully printed books that happened to be sitting in the community darkroom I own. After searching the internet for hours and looking at reviews and products of various companies, I was no further along to making a selection than when I started. My mind wandered as I stared at...

Why Film? Since 2016 I’ve messed around with film casually alongside digital. Early 2020, COVID-19 forced me to return a year early from a mission trip in Colombia and completely restart my life from zero. I couldn’t afford a digital camera like the one I sold to go on the trip but, my good experiences with 35mm SLR cameras in the past led me to pick up an Olympus OM-10 for $40 and I haven’t shot digital since. Where it began As a photographer this was my first venture into making physical art....

In this blog article, Kit Young provides insight into his latest book, Where the Rain Clouds Gather (OD Books) , which was made entirely from scanning hand-made silver gelatin prints. The Concept At times the past year has raced past in a haze. Streets have emptied and we have retreated to our cocoons. Cooped up. Waiting for the storm raging outside to subside. The images in Where the Rain Clouds Gather, my second publication, appear as if from a dream state. Moments in time, brought to life in the dark...

Urban Lives and the Natural World I've been living in some of the giant Asian metropolises for close to a decade now, and it has oriented my recent photography work towards exploring the distance between our urban lives and the natural world. One way I have found to express this has been through film double exposures where I try to blend portraits and plant textures. After 2 years of work on this, it became the Photosynthesis project. There's a little bit of history in this direction with work from grea...

After a 25 year hiatus of shooting stills, I returned to pushing on with my personal photography in 2016 and more recently using film once again. Part of that process has involved a scanner which led me to revisit some of my 1980s images which had never before been published. 1987 In 1987 as a nineteen year old, I volunteered for an occupational therapy department in a Psychiatric Hospital, leading weekly ‘photo therapy’ workshops for a small group of patients. The aim was to encourage the group to ex...

When the streets become unbearable I’m not so good with words, but that’s probably why I love photography. I can let the photos I make speak for themselves. The death of George Floyd, back in May of last year, hit me hard. So much so that I went out a did what I usually do when stress becomes unbearable, I make pictures. I grabbed my Nikon F and Nikon FE, grabbed some HP5 and FP4, and headed out to clear my mind, and see what I could create. While stopping at some familiar spots in downtown Colu...

One of the things that we're enjoying about this series is that it lets us find out more about the photographers that you follow and are interested in. This week's interviewee Chris Garner, was nominated by Joseph Patrick, who in turn was nominated by Laura E Partain. Who's nomination came from Sandy Phimester. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? My favorite image I have made so far would have to be this image. I made it while I ...

Remote Work In 2020, during the pandemic, the world has quickly switched to remote work, video conferencing and calls. People had obtained a digital image and, although it existed before, the clearest visual expression of it has incarnated in video calls. The man has an alter ego in video calls. Almost a mandatory virtual image-mask, which is broadcast to the world and could become another folder in the categories of August Sander. Endless distractions Our vision of people today is modified through...

We've admired Tom Kirkendall's beautiful pinhole images and darkroom prints for a while and were thrilled when he agreed to take part in this series and allow us to find out a little more about him in this, our 38th In Focus interview. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? My favorite photo??? Now that is a difficult decision. In the words of Ansel Adams “It is the one I have not taken yet” But if I am pressed to make a decisio...

A chance encounter We started to make this work roughly ten years ago, after a chance encounter on a photo sharing platform. This led to a mutual appreciation of each other's work and we found that we both saw the potential of the landscape to resonate with inner experience and make it visible. We were both using a camera called a Holga. An incredibly simple plastic medium format camera known for its low quality lens which produces a very dreamy aesthetic, frequently including lens flares and vignetting...

Taking Risks Through a series of what felt like small and inconsequential life choices I have found myself recently in positions where the logical course of action involved putting my health and even my life at risk, in service of making photographs. I, like many others I'm sure, want to be a great photographer. To me this means that I look with a respectful eye over my own body of work, and accept it for what it is: (hopefully) the absolute best I can accomplish. A retrospective This is something I r...

CLOSES 30TH JUNE 2021 Will you be the lucky finder of this winning ticket? 140 YEARS This year marks 140 years since the original ILFORD company was founded. To celebrate we are hiding a unique Silver Ticket inside one of our most popular black and white ILFORD films.   The ticket will be inside one of the following limited edition boxes which include our 140 year logo on the packaging. It will be inside the box in 120 film or in the tub if it's in one of our 35mm films. Bo...

In week three of our behind the film series we're heading to our technical department to meet our Technical Service Manager Neil Hibbs. Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? Neil Hibbs – Technical and Lab Services manager Tell us a little about your day to day role. I manage a small team offering technical product support, both internally (to manufacturing and marketing functions) and externally to our worldwide customer base. I also set-up the Ha...

This Sunday is Father's Day here in the UK so in a nod to that we asked you to share shots of your Dads for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #filmfathers theme. @Aryel89959692 Here is my submission Smiling face Shot on #fp4+ processed in #ddx #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #filmfathers @KevinMo08385174 #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites   @SBH2O My dad. Shots taken with #leicam3 and @ILFORDPhoto HP5. Scanned with Fuji X-T2. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #filmfathers   ...

Earlier this year in our interview with Walter Rothwell, he nominated Kris to take part in this series. We're so glad that he did. Enjoy! Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? One of my recent favourite images is this portrait of 3 young men taken on the streets of Birmingham UK. It was one of the first outings in the city post-lockdown and I wanted to really get back into a stride with my personal photography on the streets. With ...

Light in the Dark Most fine art photography starts with the photographer and finishes in the darkroom. For me it’s the other way round. My story began with seeking out the light in the dark and becoming one of Britain’s most respected black and white printers. Today, I look for the dark in the light, as a photographer in my own right. I have put together a show to mark 50 years in my Fitzrovia darkroom which opens (and closes) at the Fitzrovia Chapel on Wednesday, June 30. Then again on Monday 26th-...

A straightforward theme for today's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #sunnyfilm theme as we head towards Summer. We asked you to share your shots in the sun! @fejling The B&W (FP4+) photo taken near Edale late one sunny afternoon. Taken using Leica MP… #sunnyfilm #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites   @jamieworsfold Sunny and tuneful at the same time! This was shot with an Olympus OM10 on Pan 400 in Locronan, France.   @PhilBixby Final #sunnyfilm #fridayfavourites with shadows on ...

Perhaps best known for his engaging YouTube content and Instagram channel, this week we talked to Ribsy about his film photography SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? London South Bank on FP4 This is my favorite image shot on Ilford film (FP4). This shot was taken during a lovely Saturday afternoon on the South Bank in London, the week the final lockdown was eased. Immediately I think about the joy of walking around in the su...

All photographs are memories, a snapshot in time. Albums are great for looking back over places visited and people now missed. For this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #filmmemories theme we ask you to share shots that invoke memories for you. @timdobbsphoto "Ice Cream Van" .. Nikon FM2n on ilford HP5+ always reminds me of my childhood #filmmemories #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #believeinfilm   @rrafols One of my first outings with the #Pentax67 in my hometown. It was an old fishing ...

A scene that screams colour Have you ever been out with your camera, loaded with your favourite black and white film stock and found a scene that screams to be shot it colour? Of course you have, we have all been there! Today I am going to introduce you to a new 150 year old process called Trichromy also known as the three colour process or more recently Trichromes (by Jasper Fforde). As with all early photographic techniques it's difficult to say who coined the process first as there were many people w...

As expected, you shared a fantastic selection of shots for this simple #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #35mmhp5. It's easy to see why it's our most popular film. @Skararara5 #35mmhp5 shot I took while on a day trip with family, taken on a Harman reusable camera on #ilfordphoto hp5+ #fridayfavourites   @EsperanzaGuiri Probably my favourite pictures from the last year, and possibly few years, made with #35mmhp5 while olive harvesting last November. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites ...

Interview number four in our Behind the Film series is with International Sales Manager and relative film newbie Alex Hancock. Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? I am Alex Hancock and my role is International Account Manager. I've been with HARMAN for 3 years now. Tell us a little about your day to day role. My role is to support our international partners who manage the brand and sales in countries around the world. I work directly with all of thei...

Get ahead of the class Here you'll find links to lots of helpful information that will help you get a head start in your film photography studies. We've collated links to blogs, product pages and shared some educational videos from our YouTube channel too. So, you've got your film camera and now you need some film. Many schools, colleges and universities will lend out cameras to their students and these generally take 35mm film but, there are other options available and the type of camera that you have wi...

Whether they were intentional and thought out or, in camera accidents. We asked you to show us your #doubleexposure shots for today's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. Some definitely turned out better than others but they are all interesting! @DBloomsday This #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #doubleexposure shot (on FP4) isn't my favorite, but it's one that gets the most photoshop accusations for sure!   @tomnorthenscold On the first roll through my newly acquired Kodak Duo Six-20 I had issues ...

After sharing a few of his images in the past, we felt we wanted to know more about Nicolas de Bouville, so he became interview number 42 in this series. We have to confess to a bit of camera envy over his collection! Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? It’s so hard to pick one image only. If I think about one of the last series I did, I really like this picture of Alejandro. I’m used to photograph Alejandro in a very differe...

There were so many people asking how this has been captured when we shared it on our Instagram feed so, we caught up with the photographer Guido Macorini and asked him. Image title: Amariana Technical info Film Used  IFORD Delta 100 Format 120 Camera    Rolleicord III K3b Lens Schneider Xenar 75mm Exposure time 1/4s Other equipment Tripod, orange filter, spot light meter Location: Verzegnis Lake,  in the north eastern Italian Alps. Firstly, tell us the story behind ...

We hope that you are enjoying learning more about some of the film shooters that we have working here at HARMAN. This week's interviewee (our 5th) is our MarComms Manager Matt Parry. We think he has a bit of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) what do you think? Who are you? What is your job title at HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Matt Parry and I’ve been the Marketing Communications Manager at HARMAN technology since June 2016. Tell us a little about your day-to-day role. ...

The beauty inside I am not someone that has been stared at and called beautiful by strangers. People do not look at me and see me as who I am. First glances always lead to a double take and a look of disgust, anger and confusion. When people see me, they don’t attempt to change their perspective and see the beauty inside of me. This kind of experience, existing in a world that doesn’t believe that you have the right to do so, shows up in a lot of my work. Most of my life I have been told that the world...

My better half When my friend, who knows little about cameras, presented me with the 35mm Olympus Pen FT, it was a total surprise. Quite literally as a gift, but moreover, the camera’s function was what was most surprising. When I picked up the Pen FT for the first time, I observed how light the compact camera was. I immediately put my eye to the viewfinder and was confused. I silently thought to myself, “This is so weird…” I had never encountered a viewfinder that wasn’t horizontal. I had to lea...

It's strange how sometimes the simplest of themes can produce the most amazing images. We have seen so many great shots for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #concretefilm theme. Thank you so much for taking the time to share them. faz.io allied pinnacle  #pentax67ii #ilforddelta400 #fridayfavourites #concretefilm #bnwphoto #bnwphotographer #ilforddelta #mediumformat   poloczanski_mikolaj M93 #hasselbladxpan #xpan #monovisions #a1 #ilford #ilfordfilm #ilfordphoto #ilfordxp2 #ilford...

SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I have many beautiful prints from an Ilford negative. One Ilford film that always interests me is the Ortho 80. Being less sensitive in the reds it renders reds as dark or sometimes black giving interesting results. This is a print of a light switch in my home. The light was casting an interesting shadow across the wall. The black area is a shadow from a picture frame. It’s so simple but I jus...

Light and Details Black and white photography is a huge component of my process. The timeless quality that is perceived through its tones is something that has drawn me to photography since I was a young kid. Photographing in monochrome not only simplifies the image but, I think helps draw the viewers eye around the images to things more important, like light and details often missed in the distraction of colour photographs. When I started out photographing, I was mostly documenting my close friends and...

We are lucky here that so many of our staff are passionate about our products not just because they are proud of the brand but also because they use them themselves. Just like our 6th Behind The Film interviewee Mari. Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? I’m Mari Slater-Parry, I’ve been a research scientist at HARMAN since October 2018. I was originally employed on a fixed term grant through the INNOVATE UK scheme, before becoming a permanent member...

Three Exciting New Products We are pleased to announce the launch of 3 exciting new products. Two of these products support our goal of encouraging and enabling film photographers to take the next step in their analogue journey and experience the creativity and magic of darkroom printing. The third is the perfect holiday season gift for film enthusiasts. ILFORD Pop-Up Darkroom – Coming Q4 2021 The ILFORD Pop-Up Darkroom is the perfect solution for film photographers who want to print their negatives an...

The logical Course I think it is adequate to say that the pandemic provoked many changes for everyone. From the upheaval of our everyday lives to the anxiety over our health as well as that of our loved ones, we all quickly realized that things would not be the same. For us analog photographers that didn’t develop our own film there came another obstacle: how would we continue our craft when everything was folding around us? The logical course of action was to learn to process at home. After many YouT...

This week's interviewee, Wesley Verhoeve has been on our radar for a while so we were thrilled when he was nominated to take part in this series making him our 44th interview. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? It’s so hard to pick a favorite image but I will let recency prevail and select a recent top favourite image that made it into my photo book “Notice”. I photographed a giant leaf in a suburban backyard in beautifu...

I've tried to avoid putting this one out for a while but like ripping a plaster off I thought getting it out early may be best. There are still plenty of these interviews to come over the next few months as we speak to some of the film shooters on site but for now, I hope you enjoy our 7th Behind the Film interview. Who are you? What’s your job title at HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name’s Michelle Parr and my official title is ‘Digital Marketing Specialist’. I’ve worke...

A birthday request When my teenage daughter asked visit Eastern State Penitentiary on her birthday in January 2020 for the third time I knew I had to take something different with me to capture the historic prison. Built in the early 1800's and operational until 1971, Eastern State takes up a whole city block in Philadelphia, PA. After over two decades of neglect, the prison opened as a museum in the 90's.  Eastern State Penitentiary's Gothic castle style architecture instills feelings of awe, power,...

Crombie McNeill has been shooting film for longer than some of us have been around, and his story is fascinating which makes him the perfect interviewee for our 45th In Focus interview. Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? Shot way back in the early 70's. By happen chance I discovered this fishing dory beached on Newfoundland's Eastern coast. I very much like this shot, and even more so because I was on my very first major assignment. Twenty thre...

One of the aspects that took me perhaps the longest to understand about black and white film photography - but, which turned out to have the most impact on my visual style – is that exposure is simply not real in any meaningful way. “Correct” exposure is incredibly subjective, especially true for high contrast lighting conditions where either the shadows or highlights can be exposed for in order to achieve a dramatic scene. I think there is a greater expectation for colour film to be a representati...

Some subjects seem to go hand in hand with black and white film photography and boats in one of them. Which is why we chose #boatsonfilm for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme. poloczanski_mikolaj Kąty Rybackie.Stary Port #hasselbladxpan #xpan #ilfordphoto #ilforddelta100 #bnw  #fridayfavourites #birdsinport #ilfordphotopl #friendsinbnw #wschódsłońca #kątyrybackie #boatsonfilm #foggyday   @JevonCarey Took this one one at Southwold Harbour, Ilford Delta Pro100 135 and pr...

When an image that we share or re-gram gets a lot of interest, we like to get in touch with the photographer and find out a little more about the process that went into creating it. Le Lac du Brévent Technical info Film Used Ilford XP2 Format 135 35mm Camera       Olympus OM-10 Lens Zuikon 35mm f2.8 Exposure time I don’t really remember, I think it was something like f8 at 1/250 or 1/500 Location Lac du Brévent, Chamonix-Mon-Blanc, Savoie, Alpes, FRANCE   Firstly, tell us...

In our digital age, film photography can appear to be expensive and risky but it has challenged me to learn the process involved in taking a photo that captures my intent and tells a story, creating a real sense of achievement. Over the past year, my confidence in using the medium has grown which is driving me to experiment more. In a world where the media can manipulate colours to affect the audience’s perception, black and white film uses alternative techniques. For example, in colour, red often conn...

This week for our 46th In Focus interview we are talking to Clara Araujo. A fine art photographer from Brazil whose images explore the dualities and other aspects of the human psyche. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? It’s really hard to pick just one… but probably this self portrait: “The Birth Of Venus”, Body of Water series, 2020. ILFORD Hp5+ 400, Yashica Mat 124g. Just in case anyone doesn’t know who you are...

A dark legacy To say that this project got away from me would be accurate. It morphed and changed as I shot more film, but the more film I shot, the more it changed. It wasn’t until the end that I could feel it becoming cohesive. I started out with a relatively easy goal. Take some basic street photos of Salem, Massachusetts and document how much it comes to life during Halloween. Salem is best known for the witch trials that took place in 1692. Many people were wrongly accused of being witches an...

Today in our 8th Behind the Film interview we talk to Mike Bain. One of our longer serving team members, Mike started in our tech team and now looks after North America. He has probably forgotten more about film photography and darkroom printing than some of us will ever learn! Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Mike Bain and I am the Harman technology rep for North America. I have been with the company for 33 years. Mexico City, Me...

A well know part of the film photography community, especially on Twitter where she goes by @justgispy  We were thrilled when Margaret Fitzgerald agreed to be the subject of this week's In Focus interview. Section 1 Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I can't really say that any one photo I've taken over the years is my favourite, but this one is very memorable. Rolleiflex-TLR,-Ilford-HP5--Church-of-St.-Philibert,-Tournus,-Burgundy I...

Time to go green? As the threat of the climate crisis grows each day - we must strive for sustainability in all aspects of life. But when standing atop a cliff shakily clutching your 5x4 camera, or working under the red light of your local darkroom - sustainability can seem like a distant concern, reserved for those in stuffy offices or holding placards outside of parliament. As analogue photography has always been eager to embrace innovation in the face of change - is it time to go green? My name is...

Since we started sharing these Behind the Film interviews with you earlier this year, we have spoken to people from all different parts of our business. All are part of the team responsible for creating and manufacturing the products that you love. Today we talk to Matty, who works within our research and development department. Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name’s Matty, I’m a 4th year product development scientist apprentice and I’ve b...

Melanie King was first introduced to us by Lucy Ridges, and since then we have heard her name mentioned from several different people. It was fantastic to be able to learn a little more about her when she agreed to take part in this series. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? My favourite image is Ancient Light, Emiliano Cardone Observatory, Casalattico, 2018. This photograph was produced when my collective, Lumen Studios, ran an...

'Oh the weather outside is frightful' but on the bright side that means plenty of opportunities for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #wintertime. @debrawilsonsays The road less travelled. Shot on Pentaz MZ5n, IlfordDelta100, developed in IfotecDDX #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #wintertime #shootfilmbenice   @timdobbsphoto Yule Log .. Yashicamat 124g on ilford FP4@200 dev in ilfotecHC for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #wintertime #believeinfilm #Wales @peter_durst ? I...

There are so many of Ari's images that we have admired over the past 12 months so asking him to take part in this series was an easy decision. We're just glad that he said yes! Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? As we age, time becomes more and more valuable. Every new second is a bigger portion of our future life than the one before. Time is the only thing we cannot buy more of, but we can freeze it with photography. A photog...

Connection Over a Century Hanna Heinilä (née Hermonen, 1890–1981) was born to a vicar’s family in the small town of Luvia on the west coast of what at the time was the Grand Duchy of Finland. She had her first camera in around 1906 when she was sixteen years old and began photographing without any formal education. She bought dry-plate glass negatives from the nearby towns and learned to develop them at home by herself. Nothing was known of Hanna’s extensive work as an early photography pion...

With this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme being #nightfilm we were expecting out faster films to feature and we weren't wrong. However, you also shot with some of our slowest too! @debrawilsonsays Singapore at night. Ilford FP4  Rollei 35LED and tripod #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #nightfilm #shootfilmbenice   z.allaire #chanukah #chabad #ilfordphoto #ilfordxp2 #120film #hasselblad #hasselblad500cm #fridayfavourites #nightfilm #blackandwhite #analoguephotography #argentique ...

And suddenly, something that looked like a dandelion head floated into view, and I stood mesmerized as it hovered before me. When I peered inside, I realized that I could see a tiny winged creature within. I turned to my mother and said, “Look at that!” But all she could see was a dandelion head. Inhabitants Thirteen years ago I lost my father to Lung cancer, three years ago I lost my best friend to breast cancer. Besides cancer they both shared the same belief, that when we die, it’s lights out, th...

We had no idea when we originally started this series in April 2020 with Em from Emulsive that it would still be going strong 50 interviews later. This week's interviewee Debra Wilson was already on our radar before being nominated by Margaret Fitzgerald last month. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I chose this image of Another Place on Crosby beach.  I don’t often get to the sea so although the setting is not typical for m...

A regular contributor to the film and analogue community and always helpful and encouraging to other photographers out there. This week's In Focus interview is with "photographer” Morag Perkins who, "just takes pictures". Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I’ve chosen this one because it’s represents a process that has been very special to me recently. Over the last 2 or 3 years I’ve found a way to use photography to ...

For our first #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites of 2022 we set you the theme of #anewstart and asked you to share images of things that were new to you. Either subjects that you hadn't shot before, a new film or a new technique. @mattweddis Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney (@anzac_memorial ). 4 image, in camera, multiple exposure on @ilfordphoto HP5 in 35mm. I’ve been enjoying the incredible multiple exposures of @frankmachalowski and have been wanting to try to create some interesting multiple exposure...

We first met Lucy Ridges a few years ago virtually via social media and then in person at The Photography Show and have always admired her work. Her #MyFilmStory video gave us a bit more of a view into who she is and why she shoots film and this In Focus interview builds on that. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This is one of my favourite shots from my most recent project, Water’s Edge, released earlier this year. It’s an...

A regular contributor to conversations on film and analogue photography and always happy to share her knowledge and support other photographers. This week's In Focus interview is with Paula Smith. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? One of my favourite images. This was taken in New Zealand on a crisp sunny winter’s day. The light was beautiful and I loved how it picked up the chicken wire on the jetty. It brings back great memo...

We asked you to share a shot taken at the resolution (film speed or format) you shoot at most often for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of  #myresolution. @DrMarsRover I photograph with 120 most often. Dahlias on Delta 3200 #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #myresolution   luisvioque #hasselbladxpan #xpan #panorama #panoramiccamera #24x65 #horizonperfekt #panoramicphoto #ilfordphoto #ilfordfilm #bnw_landscape #trakai #bnw_landscapes #panoramic #mediumformat #24x65  #fridayfav...

Hi, my name is Daniel. I am a family father, creative director, and amateur photographer, so you might say I make my living by telling stories and I feel fine when things get emotional ;-). I am based in Heroldsbach, Germany. That’s a small village which lies on the edge of the so-called Karpfenland, a natural landscape transformed by man for pond farming. Until 2013, this cultural landscape was utterly unknown to me. Today it has become my home. Yet one question nags on me: “Who shapes whom more:...

We asked you to show us your #sprockets for our latest #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme.  It's fantastic to see so many of you shooting black and white 35mm films in such variety of cameras and formats. @itsnotaphoto  A 126 cartridge reloaded with 35mm FP4 Plus to make a diptych complete with #sprocket holes, shot in a Kodak Instamatic 25. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #sprockets   @bsanfordjr Captured my son pole vaulting using HP5 Plus. Then made a print on Ilford MGRC 8x10 glossy ...

We have been privileged to be able to follow Rita's journey as she started out shooting film and moved through the formats from 35mm to medium format and found her own unique style. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you This image is entitled “SANCTUARY”. I came across this couple while double dutching with a friend at Grant Park in Atlanta, GA. I was frozen by their apparent love for each other. It was pure and could be fel...

We know that we love black and white film so asked you to show us a shot showing why you love it too for today's #ilfordphoto #friayfavourites #lovefilm theme. @jamestaylor403 #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #lovefilm #HP5  just love the whole process: load, shoot, develop, print/scan. It's such a tactile, sensory and engaging process that I get something from it whatever the results. for this week's #ilfordphoto  #fridayfavourites #lovefilm theme.   @midtonegrey This is a phone pic, but he...

We hadn't seen much of Asa's work when she was nominated by Melanie King but we're so glad that she bought her to our attention. We hope that you enjoy her images and finding out more about them. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I use a large format monorail camera and shoot on Ilford HP5 Plus 5x4” sheet film. This photograph was shot in Italy during an artist residency at the British School at Rome in 2016. I went there to ...

Our 56th In Focus interview is with Brazilian experimental photographer Breno Barros. Nominated by Clara Araujo, Breno shoot underwater portraits on film searching for experiential processes that defy traditional photography boundaries. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you Multiple-exposure for the project “La boutique de l’âme” using Mamiya M645 and Ilford HP5+ My favourite image using Ilford film is due to an experimen...

As a child I fell in love with the magic of the darkroom and of making Gelatin Silver prints. Watching a print develop fascinated me. In high school I had access to a darkroom working with 620 film (2.25 X 3.25 inch roll film.) and, consequently, I studied photography at Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Photography & Syracuse University School of Journalism. Studying with art-photographer Minor White opened my eyes to using photography as an art form. Minor helped me see beyond the objective...

Our 57th In Focus interview is with Simon Smars from Stockholm who is a professional fine art photographer. Simon works exclusively with limited edition handmade black and white silver gelatin fiber prints, using traditional darkroom techniques. He creates a mixture of minimalistic scapes paired with a melancholic somber, with scenes often stripped to its bare essence. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD Film and tell us what it means to you? C I G (1: f.13 · 10-sto...

Allysse Riordan is our 58th In Focus interview. An image maker, writer, sound artist, and microadventurer (not necessarily in that order). Allysse's work takes us on a journey in a particular space and time, noticing the small details of life, meeting strangers, exploring new landscapes, and delving into their inner world Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? It is difficult to choose one favourite image. They shift and change as ...

My name is Jason Avery and I am an analogue landscape photographer based in East Anglia England. I have been working with film for a few years now, learning my craft as an artist. One of the many reasons why I decided to choose film instead of digital as a medium for my work was the darkroom experience. I have heard the quote “The darkroom is a magical place” over and over again and I can safely say that that is totally true. I have been hooked since the moment I developed my first print in my tiny dark...

Finnish Darkroom Association In Finland during the early 2000's, as elsewhere, analog photography practice was pushed aside by digital photography. The 2010's saw a rapid decline in the use of darkroom techniques by artists and the almost total disappearance of professional darkrooms and film labs. In 2016, with five other female photography artists all specialising in analogue photography and darkroom work. We founded the Finnish Darkroom Association. The original idea came from photography artist ...

Decisions. Some are small. Some are life-changing. We make them subconsciously. We make them intentionally. But either way we choose a path. There’s always an upside and always a downside. Most importantly, we look for promise in the upside, and we try and glean some value from the downside, but we can never escape the moment of decision. Ilford-FP4-Plus-Leica-M7-90mm-Leitz-Canada-Elmarit Seize the opportunity In the fall of 2019, I had to decide whether to say yes to a guy’s trip to Wyoming with ...

Shawn Pridgen is our 59th In Focus interview. A documentary photographer who owns a small business that focuses on the racial equality, Shawn actively contributes his work to local nonprofits, activist organizations and corporate entities whose mission statements align with his own. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I haven't shot it yet.... Just in case anyone doesn’t know who you are or what you do can you give us the over...

This is a story about serendipity, generosity, community, and several rolls of Ilford FP4 film. It begins in April 2020, during our first Covid-19 lockdown when a request from a sibling for an old family photo led me to dig around in my messy 35mm archive. I discovered quite a few forgotten negatives and slides from my life during the 1970’s, when I was young and single. They had been randomly stored and dragged around in house moves whilst I focussed on marriage, motherhood and a career in Social Work. E...

My love of black and white photography started back in college processing and printing images. The film of choice being FP4. and printing fibre based prints. In the beginning as a photographer most of my work was B/W. Spending much time in the dark room printing. Unfortunately time was something that was running out. As a professional you have the the funds but you don’t have the time. So I moved away from printing for a while and concentrated on shooting. Another-day-in-the-office One thing I learne...

My Graflex RB series B is an inspiring and challenging camera. It promises great results but doesn't give them easily. Graflex RB Series B A lesser-known Graflex Graflex is an American camera manufacturer well known for its 4x5” press cameras, such as the Graflex Speed Graphic. Those are large-format range-finder cameras that were popular in the 40s and 50s. This Graflex, on the other hand, is an earlier single-lens reflex camera and one from which Victor Hasselblad drew his inspiration. My Graflex ...

Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Hannah Gross and I am one of the newest members of the team at HARMAN Technology. I started working here two months ago, and my job title is ‘Digital Marketing Assistant’. HP5 + Tell us a little about your day to day role. As I have been here for such a small amount of time, I am still learning and getting used to my day to day role. I work within a small team, mainly helping and assisting where n...

Cancelled Prom Began Cancelled Prom began as a way to shed light on High School Seniors who could not celebrate their Prom due to COVID-19 concerns in the summer of 2020. Much of the daily news focused on food shortages and the death toll but I was interested in the students and the people of my community. My younger cousin was also scheduled to attend Prom that year. Our family was disappointed that she was not going to be able to celebrate. Then I began to think about the people in my local community. I ...

Waves Of raw Emotion The pandemic hit me in the same sudden and devastating way as most people I knew. Without warning, the world as we knew it came to a screeching halt and there was nothing anyone could do about it. During the first few weeks my friends and I rode waves of raw emotion. We cooked extravagant dinners and drank way too much wine. We cried, laughed until we started crying again, and tried to make light of a dark situation that we were convinced would be over soon. And on it went, day after d...

Distractions To A Minimum Whether I’m taking pictures of friends, my dogs, travel, a model, or a movie star, my goal is to make the process as simple as possible, and to keep my distractions to a minimum. While on set of a campaign shoot a few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with the talent, and he asked me how I got into photography. A question I’ve been asked before but never really gave serious thought to. Andrew Garfield. Vanity Fair - Oscars - Beverly Hills. First Meaningful Interacti...

Jamal Martin My name is Jamal Martin, and I am a 24 year old documentary photographer/filmmaker based in Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana. I started shooting film and in the style of documenting when I came across the work of Andre Wagner. I had never seen this style of photography let alone a black man thriving while doing it. Instantly I was hooked and my journey began in the summer of 2020. Freeze In the Frame This set of images has to be one of my favourites from a roll. These images were shot ...

British Culture Archive If you go to the Refuge in Manchester, you’ll find an exhibition of photographs by the renowned photographer, Tish Murtha, and a selection of my work from East Manchester. This is the latest exhibition from the British Culture Archive, but there’s more than photographs on show. It’s a commentary that began forty years ago when Tish Murtha took photographs in Elswick, Newcastle. It was taken up twenty years later when I took these photographs in East Manchester and the story ca...

Introduction My name is Marjolein Martinot, and I’m a Dutch photographer, based in France. The prime focus of my photography is on everyday life: my immediate surroundings - family and friends, and the places & things that touch me. My work consists of personal (longterm) photo-projects, as well as commissions (portraiture, family, lifestyle and documentary). 'White Horses, 2020'. 'Girl on Slide', from Riverland. My Photographic Approach I’m quite sensitive to moods, with a tendency towar...

These Dark Mountains I grew up in a small valley town surrounded by the Alps in North Italy. I have always wondered what it feels like to live and work up there in the mountains, in such a stunning but also dangerous and rough natural environment. Especially after moving to Berlin in 2015, my fascination for a life still tied to nature’s rhythm started to grow. The natural landscape which I left behind, and which used to be what I would call “home”, turned into something distant. I began to question ...

My Relationship With Streetball I love street basketball. The competition, the intense arguments and the handshakes at the end where all signs of aggression dissipate. I love the environment in which these scenes take place. From the frayed nets, the cracked asphalt, to the uneven rims, there's something compelling about basketball courts that haven’t seen repair since the day they were laid. But the true beauty of streetball happens on the sidelines between games. Here, in the waiting, is the vibrance: ...

Always watchful As a woman, out and about taking photographs on my own, I try to take care not to put myself at any unnecessary risk. I’m always watchful of anyone taking the wrong kind of interest in me or my gear. I shouldn’t have to worry about things like that but sadly, that’s how life is. When I go out, I don’t have any expectations of what I’m going to shoot that day because I never know what, or who, will turn up. Blending In Through my passion for street photography, I am very inter...

Small Fishing Village My Name is Austen Goldsmith I live on top of a hill on the outskirts of a small fishing Village in Cornwall. When a big storm approaches it means many things. It means I will have a bad nights sleep listening to the sound of the roof tiles rattling above my head. It also means that I will have a day off from my work as a fisherman. Most importantly it means I can pack a few rolls of film into my rucksack, figure out when the light will be best and what beach will have the best opportu...

How It Began When Covid-19 started, I had just made plans to follow the Bristol Roller Derby team around the UK to shoot their games. I suddenly had no focus for my photography and I wanted to make sure that I had a project to work on. I also wanted to do something with the LGBTQ+ community. In Bristol and had been photographing a friend during their transition. I thought, maybe as lockdown lifts people will want to get out and have their portraits taken. And that is how the idea for the project came about...

When I told my friend that I was going to write a piece explaining why I chose to shoot the Pride event in Salem, Massachusetts in black and white, she just laughed and told me to get on my soapbox. I'm not sure what a soap box is but if it helps me explain why I think that black and white film is incredibly important as a medium and not “old fashioned” as some think, then I'm on it. Bring me a soapbox! How it Started This started when I posted a photo on Instagram of a couple sharing a kiss at the ...

'Something Special' There is a unique rendering to photographs made with Multigrade enlarging papers. It's difficult to define, maybe it's the timeless mood or perhaps it's the mystical feeling, or even a haunting aura... it's certainly there for me I like this very much! Add to this, it's super economical and can be visually handled via darkroom safe-lights. No more fussing around in total darkness which often requires the use strong language! Humour aside, I find the physical involvement of handling the...

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon so I decided to take a walk to Alexandra Park, south of Manchester city centre.  A cricket match was under way when I wandered through the park gates and I settled down near the boundary with an ice cream to watch.  The batsmen were well on top and quite a few sixes and fours whizzed by.  All the players looked Pakistani and as I lay there I listened to the waiting batsmen chatting in Urdu. At four o’ clock forty overs were up, and six wickets were down for 256 runs.�...

Introducing Hilary Freed, our 11th Behind the Film interview. Hilary is one of our newer team members who took over from Mike Bain as our Country Manager for the US and Canada. Who are you? What’s your job title at Harman Technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Hilary Freed, I’m the Country Manager for the US and Canada. I started with Harman just 6 months ago, replacing a man who was retiring after being with the company for 34 years.  I took that as a good sign! Tell us a little a...

Introducing our 61st In Focus interview with Torz Dallison. Torz started shooting when she was a teenager, but it wasn't until she started developing and printing that she became hooked. Through her work, Torz explores life's traditions and connections which reflects on her own personal stories and events. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? The Robin - 2019 This is the central image to my project The Robin. I began the proje...

You've had a couple of weeks to share shots for today's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #pushedfilm.  And, there were far more images than usual for us to choose from because of this. It was unusual to see so many pushed shots on our DELTA films too.  Choosing just five was a tough job this week   @adiw1202 "Nap time" - HP5 pushed to 1600 #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #pushedfilm   @kostamuksendee Oh, you want #pushedfilm I have once shot Delta400 at 12800 (EOS-1 matrix me...

This weeks theme for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites was #homelife. It was so lovely to see behind the scenes of what home is to you. @Evv_pg A photograph taken on a little trail behind my house. Shot on #delta100 film with my Pentax MX. #homelife #fridayfavourites #ilfordphoto   @zap_013 Replying to @ILFORDPhoto Self portraits I took in my living room on HP5. I developed these myself using DD-X developer. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #homelife   @billthoo Replying to @ILFORDPho...

We speak to Jim Mortram, who is this week's In Focus interview. Jim is an award-winning Social Documentary Photographer and the creator of these photo stories: Small Town Inertia. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This portrait with Carl, as always for me, was made with HP5 Plus pushed to 800. When I first met Carl & began collaborating with him on sharing his story he was in a bad place. We would talk often but it was mayb...

Our theme was #leavesonfilm - For this week as long as there is a leaf or leaves in the image you were good to go! I adore how each and every one of you captured leaves in your own unique way. @PhlStrchn Replying to @ILFORDPhoto Leafy track, Perth. Ilford FP4+ 35mm, Yellow Filter, Canon EOS1000. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #leavesonfilm   @filmfarkus Shot with a Rolleiflex 3.5f on Ilford Delta 100. One submission for fridayfavourites. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #leavesonfilm  ...

4th of July weekend It all started with a single roll of 120 ILFORD HP5+ film and a Rolleiflex 3.5F over the Independence Day weekend which fell on a Monday this year. It was the Friday of that long holiday weekend and I loaded the roll of film in the Rolleiflex and took the camera for a ride to McIntosh Lake in Longmont Colorado (USA) in the hopes of finding worthwhile photo subjects. My goal was to find street portraits and storytelling photographs. What it became over the next ten weeks is the Longmo...

Our 63rd In Focus interview is with our ILFORD Master printer, Andrew Sanderson. Andrew has been a professional photographer for over 35 years, and has established an international reputation as both practitioner and teacher of the photographic medium. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? Walk,walk,walk. HP5, Nikon F3. My favourite picture changes quite often. Usually it is the last print I made where everything came together ...

Last week's theme for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites was extra tough, so we decided to scrap that theme and move on to #Forbiddenfilm for this week. We wanted to see those sneaky shots you took when you shouldn't have your camera! @PhlStrchn Replying to @ILFORDPhoto I wanted a shot framing an artist, painting and subject. A bit later I asked/gestured if it would be ok and was told it was all "Prywatny - Private". Near Most Tumski - Tumski Bridge, Wrocław. Ilford XP2 Super 120mm, Zeiss Ikon Nettar #ilf...

We gave you another complex theme for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. We wanted to see your most creative film pics, as the theme was #experimentalfilm.   @filmfarkus Eight exposures on one frame of Ilford Delta 100. Mamiya C33. 80mm f2.8. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #experimentalfilm @apkeedle Replying to @ILFORDPhoto My latest experiments. Multiple exposures with a Holga Pan with HP5 in the City #holga #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #experimentalfilm ...

Some of the reasons that make me want to come back every year Barcelona has undoubtedly become one of my favorite destinations to visit during spring. Its perfect Mediterranean weather, the skate sessions with my friends at some of the best skate spots in the world, the long walks around the city photographing its streets and architecture, the launches of new exhibitions in different galleries, its gastronomy, and of course, the concerts and festivals that take place during that time, such as the Primavera...

The year 2000 The first time I photographed skateboarding was in the year 2000, following around a boy I liked with a disposable camera. My equipment and film stocks have gotten better over the last two decades, and my girlhood crush has been replaced by a deep passion for capturing the unique poses of skateboarders and their culture and community. Dancer suspended in space I don’t know the names of most of the tricks the skaters I photograph are attempting. I’m half-listening when someone tries to...

Perhaps best known for his role in the Netflix show The last Kingdom, we talked to James Northcote about his film photography for our 64th In Focus interview this week. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? This is a shot I took during the final season of the Last Kingdom. After Season 2 I started tying a point and shoot on the inside of my costume so that I’d always have a camera with me wherever I was. It didn’t matter if I w...

Kentmere films now available in 120 format HARMAN technology Ltd are pleased to announce that from December 1st, 2022, Kentmere Pan 100 and Kentmere Pan 400 films will be available in 120 format. Kentmere Pan 100 is a medium speed, ISO 100 panchromatic black & white film with fine grain and good sharpness. It has a broad tonal range with ‘medium’ contrast and a wide,  forgiving exposure latitude. Compared to Kentmere PAN 400, this film is slower with finer grain, and a touch more contrast. ...

Shooting 35mm film Sprockets with Kentmere 400 and a medium format TLR Including sprockets in scans is nothing new but has increased in popularity recently. While the inclusion of sprockets showing the film name looks great, as the photographic emulsion covers the full 35mm width of the film in your cassette, it is actually possible to expose your image beyond the standard 24x36mm frame and cover the entire sprocket area with your image. I thought I’d give this a try with my TLR, so read on below to f...

"Wait, are you shooting film?" That's the usual question I get at an event I shoot. I started shooting sports at the same time that I even started taking photos at all. My plan was to be a documentary filmmaker, travel the world with a backpack and sleep on random couches and see how far $20 could get me. I was in an MMA gym filming and during breaks, I would randomly take a photo here and there, for no other reason than boredom. I wasn't ever going to be a photographer, who cares? Jake Paul - Cano...

Portrayal Of Musicians I’m not sure which came first, my love of photography or my love of music. Growing up in the Boston area, I was fortunate to be immersed in both. Whether it be standing in awe at the beauty of Alfred Steiglitz’s work on display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts or being immersed in the local music scene, spending time with the likes of Bonnie Raitt or Aerosmith, these two passions seemed to run in parallel for me. As time progressed my photography, and music connections led me...

This week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme was #winteronfilm. We wanted to see what winter looked like in your part of the world. This theme was a popular theme with a lot of entries which we've enjoyed looking through this morning. A huge thank you to everyone who shared their images. Our favourites are below. @timdobbsphoto "My Favourite tree" .. Yashicamat 124G on expired ilford FP4 for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #winteronfilm @tarnography @ILFORDPhoto this is #winteronfilm #fridayfa...

Abstract Concepts Often times, I come up with ethereal and abstract concepts for my artwork. However, I noticed that my techniques and skills in the darkroom did not match up to my artistic output. Which is such a shame. I wanted to do something about it. It is like having the urge to do a back flip but not having the progressed workouts to help you get there. My name is Zain Al Khalifa, I use film photography as a base for my artwork. I like darkroom printing and I wanted to share an experience with yo...

Our 65th In Focus interview is with film photographer and laboratorist Amanda Monasterio, who used multiple exposures in their work to represent feelings and temporality. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? My favorite image ever photographed with ILFORD is definitely this one and it's from my project called "Asterismos" (Asterisms). This project draw parallels between the imaginary of being and inhabiting a body. My ancestors, t...

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...

Our 66th In Focus interview is with Danish photographer Lea Elm who is a writer living in England. Find out why analogue and instant camera's became an epiphany within Lea's work. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? World - Museum -Liverpool - 2019 - HP5+ It was hard to pick just one but I decided on this one taken in 2019 on my first, and so far only, trip to Liverpool. Rachel Brewster-Wright (of @LittleVintagePhotography)...

We thought it would be a great chance to chat with Ben Hawkins & Liza Kanaeva-Hunsicker about their book 'Shooting Film'. This book is a beginner-friendly book which introduces curious individuals to the world of analogue photography. A little bit about yourself Liza: My name is Liza Kanaeva-Hunsicker, I was born and raised in Moscow, got my Bachelor’s degree in California and have been living and working in NYC for the past 11 years. I’m a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in photography...

There was a lot of interest in this shot when it was shared on our Instagram feed, so we asked Kim Mimnaugh & Jess Martineau to tell us a bit more about it. Image Title Water Goddess:Triple Exposure Technical Info Film Used ILFORD HP5+ Format 120 Camera Hasselblad 501 CM Lens 150mm Exposure time 3 exposures on one piece of film 1/60th at f8 Other equipment Studio stand, sekonic flash meter, black velvet for the background Speedotron location lighting kit, one strobe set at 400 WS with...

Discovering Analog Photography My name is Dora Lionstone, and I’m a visual artist based in Amsterdam. I have been passionate about photography for a while now, years before I switched from being a software developer to becoming a full-time artist. But it was only in 2017, at the beginning of my studies at the art academy, that I also discovered analog photography for my artistic process. Instead of completely turning to the analog world, I began to embrace it as one element of a hybrid approach. For exam...

The Young Family In a small town in Russia, a couple became the parents of a baby girl. The young family embarked on a journey, forced to address the couple's relationship, parenting, a new economic life, difficulty, and the struggle for survival. They decide to begin a new life. They sit in a library, explore an old globe to search for a better place to continue the dream from which they were created, seeking a place close to earth, mountains, water, and sky. ILFORD FP4+ The Dream I join their dream...

Wednesday Afternoon I remember the message on Instagram from Clare one wet Wednesday afternoon whilst I was halfway through my maternity leave… “Julie & I are getting married on Sunday, any chance you’re free?!” I was absolutely thrilled to get to shoot Clare & Julie’s wedding day and knew they’d make it absolutely their own. They had just 4 guests (their two best friends and their two sisters) and it was such a special and beautifully intimate day. The Most Loving Ceremonies Alth...

'What are you doing?' After 25 years it still catches me off guard. Because my work happens in public spaces, the answer comes often and without pause. Men walking by the scene will change direction and make their way to within a meter of my tripod. While to me it is evidently clear, to the viewers it is understandably strange. For my portraits of girls in rural India, this is supremely true. To set the scene, we are using medium format gear mounted on a tripod, speaking with the children being photographe...

We are heading to R&D to speak to Calvin Carey, our 13th Behind the Film interview. Calvin is a Physicist here at HARMAN Technology. Find out more about what his role entails. Who are you? What’s your job title HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Calvin Carey, and I work as a Physicist here at HARMAN. I started in 2019. Tell us a little about your day to day role. My day-to-day work is hugely varied, depending on which projects in R&D (research and development) or m...

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 ...

Bombay Beach In 2011 I was living in San Francisco,CA making my way through a graduate program in Photography. Working on my thesis afforded me the opportunity to venture around the state of California. I traveled a lot. I went to the top of the state, the far corners, all over really. On one trip, I drove down to the Salton Sea, an almost forgotten place south of Palm Springs and the Coachella valley. It was a fascinating adventure. I remember driving through Bombay Beach, one of the small remaining towns...

Yosemite National Park Let me take you back to the beginning of 2022, where my year started with an exciting adventure. I had the opportunity to take a trip to California, and my destination was Yosemite National Park. As a film photographer, I knew this was a location that held great significance. It was home to the Ansel Adams gallery and had a reputation for being an iconic spot to capture some breathtaking photographs. I had seen some of Ansel's prints online, but nothing could compare to seeing the or...

For our 68th In Focus interview, we speak to landscape photographer Bill Brooks. Bill enjoys photographing the landscape. He is particularly interested in how it has been affected by those who have gone before us and how it impacts the lives of those who occupy it today. His work is influenced by painters and writers as well as other photographers. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? A recent favourite is Sullington Yew, from my ...

Join us while we chat with self-taught photographer Khoi Minh Nguyen, who is our 70th In Focus interviewee. Khoi tries to approach his photography as a still image in a movie and uses this medium to document life. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? Hasselblad 503cxi - ILFORD SFX 200 The image of my mother is my most proudest moment I had made last year. It felt like I was making work that I have been trying to make for a lon...

Postcards From The Past Would you like your pictures to still be looked at, and maybe even revered, in fifty years from now? One likely route to such success is to document our ‘built environment’ - the buildings that surround us all. From Eugène Atget’s time onwards photographs of our town and cityscapes have become objects of fascination and information for later generations. And buildings really do come and go remarkably quickly - even great ones - and in just a few years our photographs of them ...

HP5 PLUS is our most popular film due to its versatility and wide exposure latitude.  We knew that with this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme being #madewithhp5 we would see a huge selection of images and as usual, you didn't disappoint! @Fatal1tyV#ilfordphoto #fridayfavorites #madewithHP5 Jinan, China @overcasteightKaiser double exposure on #hp5 at 800 #fridayfavourites #madewithHP5 #believeinfilm @peter_durst  I don’t normally shot HP5, but I’ve been experimenting with my vers...

Why pinhole photography? This is a question I’m often asked, by fellow photographers and complete strangers alike. Using a beautiful wooden Ondu camera, I began exploring the world of slow photography about five years ago. The moment I saw my first developed negatives I knew I’d found a glimpse of photographic heaven. This started my obsession with this ancient form of imaging. As you’ll see, my love of this medium has many facets – the creative possibilities, the look and even the image making pro...

Our 69th In Focus interview is with poet, former university instructor and high school teacher Lorraine Healy. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? I took this image in January 2022. We had been having a lot of fog that was lasting longer than the usual early morning ‘til sunrise. I knew where I wanted to go. This place, Indian Slough, is some 70 minutes away from my house. I could tell when I got there that the sun was beginnin...

Introducing our 15th interviewee and one of Film Finishing's newest team members, Paul Cliff. Who are you? What’s your job title at HARMAN technology and how long have you worked here? My name is Paul Cliff and I have been with the company since February 2023. Tell us a little about your day to day role. I work on our 120 roll film spooling machines. I love everything about it. It’s been like taking control of a classic car, learning all its idiosyncrasies and intricacies; it’s an absolute mar...

By Early Afternoon In 1997, while on assignment in Thailand, someone told me that one of the Thai borders with Cambodia was open and letting some people pass by. As a freelance journalist, I realized the opportunity and as soon as I finished my assignment, investigated the possibility of going to Cambodia. I knew that the UN Peace-Keeping Forces were in Cambodia and the Pol Pot army had mostly surrendered. But that was about it. It took me about two days to decide and prepare myself to go to Cambodia. W...

«If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. » Henry Miller Community Of Male Bathers Lanterna “Beach” is a long-term project (2015-2022) that documents a community of male bathers in a town in Southern Italy, where I was born and raised, before leaving my country. The work explores the relationship between this peculiar community and the nature of the Pier where they sunbathe...

Gosia Janik gives us the lowdown on how she captured this striking portrait. Image Title Xu Jing Technical Info Film Used ILFORD HP5+ Format Medium format 6x5 Camera Mamiya 645 AFD Lens Mamiya 80mm f2.8 Exposure time 1/60 Location Home/studio in Madrid Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? I often work with “new faces” - models that are sent to me by agencies to shoot a session for building or renovating their portfolio. Xu was sent to me by...

Fascinated By Portraiture Ever since I´m shooting photos I am fascinated by portraiture. There is something special to photograph a person. It´s always a very intimate moment and you have to build a relationship to each person that is in front of the camera. After shooting 35mm for a while I wanted to try something new. Inspired by Nick Brandt and his wildlife portraits in "Across the Ravaged Land", I found out that he uses a Pentax 67 including a 105 2.4 lens for his absolutely outstanding work. Long st...

It's amazing how sometimes the simplest of themes can produce the most outstanding images. We have seen so many great shots for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #emptyspace theme. Thank you so much for taking the time to share them. @davejsherwood. Here's my #emptyspace shoot for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. A small boat travelling up the River Douro in (you guessed it) Porto, Portugal. This one was shot on #delta400.   @MattAngleyPhotoEmpty Staircase? Zeiss Ikoflex ...

It makes us so happy that you enjoy shooting ILFORD FP4+ as much as we, as you demonstrated for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme being #madewithfp4. @JeremyCalow. One of my favourite shots with FP4+ “The Crew” #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #madewithfp4   @kostamuksendee. #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #madewithfp4. I feel nostalgic sharing these FP4+ photos of Helsinki summer. This is when we would enjoy bathing in the sun (but in shades of course), before diving into...

'Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light'. Le Corbusier, 1920 Concrete Photography Brutalism as a style has received bad press. When we first hear the term, we all feel a logical rejection. The handbooks go on to explain that it comes from the French term béton brut, although the inventors of the term undoubtedly played on confusion, leaving an after-taste of je m’en fous, of bloody-mindedness, not giving a damn, in short. As a movement, as an a...

What it’s like to be a penguin Possession Island is a rock in the Southern Indian ocean, about the size of the Scottish Isle of Rùm. It harbours a small French research station (a couple dozen people year round), and half a million seabirds. We have been monitoring King penguin populations there for the past decades: fascinating birds, King penguins. They may look clumsy on shore, but each of these little characters has been scouring through the wildest seas in the world, year in and year out, weatherin...

Laura Cogan grants us an exclusive glimpse into her creative process and the techniques that brought forth this beautiful masterpiece. Image Title Isolated Church Technical Info Film Used ILFORD DELTA 100 Format Medium Camera Hasselblad 500cm Lens Hasselblad 180mm Exposure time f4 at 1/500 Other equipment Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 tripod and Sekonic flashmate L-308S lightmeter Location Snæfellsnes, West Iceland - the church is called Breiðabólsstaðarkirkja Firstly, tell us the story behi...

Brutal & Beautiful In June of 2022, I set out on a 3500 mile motorcycle trip with my close friend David Wright. We left from Los Angeles, CA with our end destination being Glacier National Park, searching for the space in-between life’s brutal & beautiful exploration of our short time upon this world. I personally have gone through life altering changes these past few years; death, a divorce, more death, the on going pandemic and having to confront life, loss and the overwhelming notion that time...

Today's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites was #themefree. We couldn't wait to see the incredible and imaginative images our community would share. Without a doubt, these selections are some of the standout ones. @Mark_Pimlott. Shot a few years ago on a hasselblad 503 and 40mm Lens with FP4 using a semi stand development #ilford #fridayfavourites   @sbills15. Morning and evening light play. @Hasselblad #hasselblad #ilford #fridayfavourites #panfplus #delta400  ...

“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...

 A History on the Road In May of 2023, I loaded up the car and I headed off to the North Cascades. The freeway had just reopened after a long, icy winter. I was desperate to break out of my work routine and follow my creative pursuits. Growing up in the American Southwest I spent my childhood in the back of my father’s pick up on our family’s retreats. Being from a blue-collar middle class family, we were never going anywhere fancy. We made pilgrimages to Arkansas in my youth where abandoned and di...

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...

Our 72nd In Focus interview is with Brazilian lab technician and teacher Samanta Ortega. Samanta focuses on empowering and fueling the resurgence of film photography in Brazil from the inside out. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVORITE IMAGE/PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU. Invasão | ILFORD Delta 400 | Yashica Zoomate 76 There is so much I could say about this image, but no description I elaborate will ever do it justice. This was one of the frames in the first eve...

Fading From View My project “Extinct" aims to highlight our quickly vanishing natural world. Just as photographs can fade over time, so many species on our planet are also permanently fading from view. The delicate chemical process of film photography I have chosen highlights the fragility of the medium as well as the state of existence of the species portrayed. Compositions bare the mark of their making. The edges of the frames are vanishing. Imperfections are left on view. As analogue photography is...

#printedinthedark was the perfect theme for all our darkroom enthusiasts for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. You are all extremely talented and, we can see the passion in your prints. Take a look at a few of our favourites this week: @PlymouthDarkro1. Taken with a Ihagee Duplex on FP4+, then onto you FB Classic. #Fridayfavourites #printedinthedark   @sbills15. Prints from last Sunday's Darkroom session. Printed on ILFORD's MGFB Classic 11x14 paper and toned i...

Daniel Elbaz generously shares insights into his creative journey and how he conceived the idea of "12 Ways to...", for our 'How I Got This Picture' series. IMAGE TITLE 12 ways to … Technical Info Film Used ILFORD HP5+ Format 120 Camera Hasselblad 503cw Lens Planar 80mm Exposure Time 1/125s at f16 Other Equipment Elinchrom Studio flash Location Paris, FRANCE Firstly, tell us the story behind this image. What inspired you to shoot it? I have been passionate about black and white phot...

One Specific Speed Rating Us film photographers are used to the limitations of our medium. In fact, we often regard them as strengths, and not weaknesses. But even we can’t really take issue with the suggestion that as soon as we begin to expose a roll of film we are limited to one specific speed rating, making it more difficult to adapt to quickly changing light conditions. On digital: no problem. Just whack the ISO up to some implausibly high number, and keep shooting. Sadly we just can’t do that mid...

This week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites was inspired by the fashion weeks that took place in Paris and New York City in September, with the theme being #fashiononfilm. @BlkWhiteFilmPix. Esmeralda's 15th-Century fashion: Image on #Ilfordphoto Delta 3200, Brasserie Esmeralda, Paris #fashiononfilm #fridayfavourites Photo © Bob Soltys All Rights Reserved   @MutinAntoine. Shot on ILFORD 3200. Just one setting and get ready to shot at the sun during the Seoul Fashion Week....

Something that I love For the longest time I was aware that I had difficulties reading, writing, and understanding certain things, but it was only when I was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia that is became clear why this was. I have enjoyed the art of photography for so many years and after a triple bypass surgery in 2019, I made the decision to return to college and learn at a professional level something that I love. 500 ELM Hasselblad camera I enrolled in the photography division, at OCC (Orange...

Allow us to introduce Mandyleft, our 73rd featured artist in our "In Focus" series. Mandyleft is a talented film photographer known for her deep passion for connecting with people, a quality that has immersed her in the vibrant film community. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE/PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU. I took this photo in a hotel in London. It was a very exciting weekend. I had just been to the theatre and then I had been shooting around the West End...

This week's theme for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites is #allonkentmere. Kentmere, with its exceptional quality, is not only an excellent choice for those venturing into film photography for the first time but also a preferred film for seasoned photographers. @hannibal.bass. Pentax MX? Kentmere 400...#pentaxmx #shootpentax #kentmere400 #ilfordfilm #kpan400 #allonkentmere #fridayfavourites #35mmfilm   @uk_filmfanatic. Repost for @ilfordphoto #fridayfavorites. Sleepy Jack Russell. Nikon F100 wi...

When I Was A Teenager Mine is a common story with photography in that my dad gave me his 35mm camera when I was a teenager. I shot his Minolta until I dropped it a few too many times and the light leaks became punitive. Soon after, I stumbled into the darkroom just as casually after I found my dad’s enlarger in the back of a closet and my friend, Joel, taught me the basics of printing in a few hours (I didn’t realize how difficult that would be). I didn’t have or know about filters and had no techniq...

Portraits Of Strangers I’ve always been fascinated with people on the street and how they carry themselves. Their faces, body language, the clothes they wear - everyone’s walking around with their own unique story, and I can’t help but be curious. I've spent a lot of time working with non-actors in commercials and documentaries, which has been a crash course in connecting with people quickly. It’s not your typical "stand here, do this" directing. It's about getting real people to open up in front o...

My First Child I got pregnant with my first child in early 2020. Our 12 week scan took place three days before the announcement of the first lockdown in the UK. I spent the majority of that pregnancy in isolation, with no face to face appointments with any health professionals and barely any contact with friends and family beyond WhatsApp or the occasional video call. This New Chapter To make matters worse, I fell at home at around 30 weeks pregnant and broke my left wrist. I spent the best part of 1...

Sharing Our Experience One Day At A Time Boys is an arts project that has run for the past 3 years in Damien John Kelly House (DJK), a recovery community for men based in Liverpool 15. Offering a program of support based in the arts, sport and culture. We celebrate our community, explore individuality whilst documenting our personal growth and shared experience. Applying recovery values of willingness, honesty, and open mindedness within a creative setting. Marrying up the transferable benefits and lessons...

Camera And Us Once I started shooting film, I decided to start creating some photography projects. My first photographic project was called: 'Camera and Us.' This project documented people on the street and which camera they used. I chose to use a film camera to capture all kinds of people with their cameras on the street. Once I approached them, I told them my photographic intentions. We would have a simple chat to make them feel comfortable and more importantly, for them to consent to be photographed. ...

Let the beauty of #autumnonilford unfold in every frame, showcasing the diverse and stunning perspectives captured by our global community for this week's #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. @peter_durst. For this weeks #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #autumnonilford my submission is: The Yukon River. Hasselblad 500CM, Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f4, PAN F. Whitehorse, The Yukon #believeinfilm   @PlantingCabbag1. Munich on HP5! #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites #autumnonilford. (I'm @midtonegrey on ...

This week's theme for #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites is #shotwithdelta400. ILFORD DELTA 400 film is a autumn favourite, thanks to its adaptable ISO. It lets you seize every moment, no matter the weather. @peter_durst. For this weeks #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme of #shotwithdelta400 my submission is: Icelandic Coastline and the Greenland Sea Hasselblad 500CM Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f4 Delta 400 Miklavatn, Iceland ??. #believeinfilm #filmphotography #blackandwhitephoto.   ...

We are now heading to HARMAN Lab to speak to Charlie Hill , our 16th Behind the Film interview. Charlie works as a Photo Lab Technician here at HARMAN Technology. Find out more about what his role entails. WHO ARE YOU? WHAT’S YOUR JOB TITLE AT HARMAN TECHNOLOGY AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED HERE? My name is Charlie Hill, I have worked as a Photo Lab Technician since April 2023. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR DAY TO DAY ROLE. My day-to-day role revolves around Harman Lab where we offer B&W and colou...

This weeks #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites theme was #themefree. Take a look at the themes you chose to submit this week.   @petrgo. #clouds #road #twins #bohemia #bnwmagic #ilfordphoto #ilfordhp5 #fridayfavourites #themefree #mediumformat #silvergelatin #shootfilm #6x6 #filmcamera #magicflexcamera #rolleiflex #rollei #analogue #blackandwhite #monochrome #darkroom #silverhalides #noiretblanc #analoguevibes #bnw #homedeveloped #bnwminimalismmag #monoart.   @krzyphotography. Bentley S2,...

Step into Simon Auger's world as he unveils an intimate view of his creative process and the intricate techniques that birthed this stunning architectural masterpiece in this 'How I Got This Picture' interview. IMAGE TITLE Downtown Toronto #2 2023 TECHNICAL INFO Film Used ILFORD HP5+ shot at 1600 ISO. FORMAT 35mm. Camera Nikon F3. Lens 17mm Tokina Prime Lens. Exposure time Can't Remember. Location This shot was taken looking up into the mist-covered buildings at the intersection of King s...

Concrete Jungle At the crack of dawn, the sleepless vagrant remains glued to the stone of the pavement. A long road with no intersection, apha indlela ayibuzwa kwabaphambili. As the light creeps into the skyline, all a city dweller sees is blood and grime. With so much dog shit in the streets, beggars are still scrapping for bones to chew. A muffled groan & moaning of a trapped miner, buskers are constantly offbeat & in a permanent state of gloom and cynicism. The nostalgic aroma of the community�...

The Nod The rope is thick and heavy, and coated with resin applied to heat it up and make it sticky. The cowboy wraps this bullrope around his right hand and ties himself in. A thin leather glove protects him from burning his hand if the rope slips. He settles himself on the back of the 1500 pound Brahman bucking bull named Spooky Lukey, and Spooky Lukey hasn’t been ridden yet this season, or last year for that matter. When he’s set, he gives The Nod. The Nod starts off one of the greatest sequences in...

Pain or Peace There are some moments in a man's life that are truly capable of changing him in the depths of his being. Whether through pain or peace, sadness or joy. For a photographer like me, the feelings that arose in my heart over the years also became part of my photographic language. 13 Years Old On February 9, 2020, my younger brother, Pedro Henrique, passed away while battling cancer. He was only 13 years old. At first I felt that I had lost all my motivation as a photographer and as an individu...

Meet Lindsey Campbell, the SHE manager at HARMAN Technology and our 17th featured guest in the 'Behind The Film' interview series. WHO ARE YOU? WHAT’S YOUR JOB TITLE HARMAN TECHNOLOGY AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED HERE? I’m Lindsey – the SHE (Safety, Health and Environment) Manager. I came to HARMAN in 2020, just before the pandemic hit, so have been here for four years. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR DAY TO DAY ROLE. It’s something of a cliché, but every day really is different. There are day-to-d...

The Love Affair I didn’t even really like racing when we planned our trip to the Monaco Grand Prix. Not racing, not Formula 1, not any of it. But I did have a very long ongoing love affair with the south of France and any opportunity to spend time along the Mediterranean was a go for me. Something Was Unlocked As my husband Mark and I were planning this trip to celebrate a milestone birthday, something happened to me in the lead-up; something was unlocked. It’s Mark who has the life-long love of ...

Asphalt Kingdom When I was 15 I picked up my mum’s old and now scarcely used Soligor TM (a cheap 35mm SLR). Having seen a few friends shoot colour film on disposables, I remember thinking “I like how it looks but do they even make film anymore?”. I spoke to my step-dad about where I might find some of this film and he quickly pointed me in the direction of ILFORD, a film manufacturer who’s film he’d stood by for many-a-year (something I’m intent on standing by too). A google search and three cl...

The Greatest Gift In 1984, at age of 10 my foster parents, to whom I was never close, gave me a camera. It is the greatest gift they gave to me. Since then, I have photographed the world to make sense of it and my place in it. Now, forty years later, I respect photography to the extent it should be respected. It has become an integrated part of who I am, it has shaped me into what I am and I have shaped it - we are one and I would arguably feel nothing in life without this powerful mechanism. I come from a...

Inheritance The thing nobody really tells you about when it comes to inheriting a legacy is the weight of it, and what follows the inevitable acceptance of it. My late grandfather Hendrikus Goris was an avid film photographer in his early 20’s - much like myself. I recently had the privilege of scanning and archiving some incredible images from his earlier years, 30+ rolls of film documenting family life with some rather editorial styled portraits sprinkled in. Most of them were shot on ILFORD film in ...

We speak to Ki Price, who is this week's In Focus interview. Ki is a specialist photographer renowned for capturing celebrities, portraits, and fashion. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE/PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU. Tess Parks My favourite image that I have taken is of singer, Tess Parks. I contacted her on Instagram and said, ‘can we do a shoot if you are ever in London?’ She replied and said, ‘I’m in London at the moment.’ I decided to shoot ...

The Outcome I am known as a black and white Photographer. I always prefer shooting in black and white. It helps me convey the concept of the image formed in my mind , through my photography. Another reason that always motivates me is the precedence of form over colour. However, sometimes I choose to shoot in colour to see the different outcome's. The outcome is usually that I should never shoot in colour because the type of light I shoot with isn't usually compatible for colour photography. My Favouri...

A 10 Day Journey After getting home from Scotland in April of 2023, I was left with a good problem – I had way too many images that I loved. A month before, I had taken my Fuji TX1 panoramic camera, and a bag full of ILFORD Delta 400 and 3200, and walked from Milngavie to Loch Ness, a roughly 156 mile route using the West Highland Way and the Great Glen Way. Nights were spent in tents, days were long and energizing, and photographic scenes seemed to be in no short supply at every bend in the trail. Disti...

Introducing our 75th In Focus interview and our analogue community grant winner, Federico Pestilli. Pestilli was born in Rome and became interested in documentary-style of photography, focusing on irony that unites people, places and symbols with each other. Section 1 - Background Share your favourite image / print shot on ILFORD film and tell us what it means to you? Heritage - Arianna - Cocullo, Italy - Pentax 67, 135mm lens - HP5+ This is an image of Arianna, a snake handler from the town of Cocul...

Environmental Portraits I started my analogue black and white portraits of artists in spring 2021, the second year of the pandemic. I wanted to photograph actors in Berlin over a longer period of time. This was the right moment because theaters were closed and filming of movies had largely been stopped. I decided to shoot some kind of “environmental portraits” in public spaces. I wanted the location to be part of the portrait. In addition, local health restrictions back then allowed gatherings of exact...

Oh, crap! What have I done? Let’s see.  I committed to do a solo photography show, with twenty-seven images.  All twenty-seven are 4x5 black and white negatives, so they need to be darkroom printed.  And those will be 20x24 prints.  Yeah, and I need to have them matted and framed.  The icing on the cake?  I have just under three months to do this. Yep, this is going to be an interesting project.  But let’s back up to the beginning. The Event It was April 2023, three years after the pand...

Join us while we chat with freelance photographer Dominik Friess, who is our 76th In Focus interviewee. Dominik's main focus in photography is portraiture, as it is the form of photography that resonates with him the most because of the uniqueness and depth that each person carries within themselves. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I don't believe I have an 'all-time favorite' as such. I've taken many photos on ILFORD fil...

Is a Photograph a Photograph if it Was Not Made with a Camera, Lens, or Negative? The ethereal color palette and expressionistic qualities of the work I have been making with ILFORD's photographic paper seemingly resemble the representations of light and color as seen in many landscape paintings (think J.M.W. Turner, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole); however, the work in my on-going project, I Thought You Left / I Wish You Were Here, are lumen prints—a form of camera-less photography where objects or a neg...

Perhaps best known for working at The Darkroom Lab, this week we talked to Trev Lee about his film photography. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? ILFORD FP4+ One of my all time favorite shots on ILFORD film was captured on FP4 Plus 125 with a Nikon FM3A and Ultron 40mm. It is a shot I have taken before on HP5+ a couple months prior - I love the texture of the tree which is framed by the squiggly lines of a a bicycle rack bu...

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...

The Dynamic There is something distinctly different about photographs of cities versus rural areas. The variations of negative space, the intensity of nature versus people, and the rhythm of light that exists in these places; all contribute to the dynamic of a photograph. Personal Goal Last March, I made a trip to Colorado and the Grand Canyon to visit two of my best friends. I went on this trip carrying more black and white film. My favourite ILFORD film is HP5+. It’s my personal goal to photograp...

Same as ours The reportage tells of a journey in the regions of Northern India, starting from the borders with Pakistan to the banks of the Ganges river, in Varanasi. The story traveled on trains, buses, planes and tuc tuc. The roads were all dusty and bumpy but the people met were all clear and sunny. The glances reveal details of everyday life: people working, eating, sleeping, children going to school. Their daily life is the same as ours, but at the same time very different. If you step off the well-tr...

What would happen if I dedicated myself entirely to film photography? More then a year ago I had this idea in my head. What would happen if I dedicated myself entirely to film photography? After 10 years of being a sidekick to my creative output, I felt the need to give more attention to my analogue passion and the desire to change my creative habits. To challenge myself. To no longer rely on the vague promise of the digital safety net of mass storage and a camera screen that promises instant judgement of ...

FILM AND DOCUMENTARY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY Only in 2022, I bought my first film camera - a Minolta X700. Right from the first film I was absolutely in love with shooting analog. Working as a documentary family photographer I am drawn to the honest and unfiltered truth of family life. For me, analog photography and documentary family photography converge, weaving elements of rawness and unadulterated truth. There are no hundreds of images, meticulously sifted through for the best; no embellishment through hour...

Introducing Susie Jones, our 78th In Focus interviewee. Susie is an artist, songwriter and musician based in the Northwest of England, find out why analogue photography is her latest expression. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? Jumping straight in with the difficult questions here. I find it impossible to choose favourite images, it constantly changes. We see so much of ourselves and our current state in images and how we rela...

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...

My Current Journey My 4x5 inch documentary photography in Iceland once again immersed me in the fascinating world of this unique country. But this time with a new perspective, coloured by memories of my previous trip there a decade ago. I had the opportunity to explore Iceland then, and the memories of that unforgettable time accompanied me on my current journey. An Explorer In a Foreign World Ten years ago I experienced Iceland with a sense of adventure and no expectations. As I explored the bre...

Winning The Competition I was in Oracabessa, Jamaica when I won this competition. My rollerskating community back in London was spreading the word far and wide about this vote at skate rinks and events, and amongst their family members and colleagues. I virtually reached out to nearly every person I’d ever met, asking them to help me win ILFORD'S Community Grant of £500 worth of film and equipment. That experience really showed me the power of community. Ever since then, I’ve been making this project ...

You may already be familiar with his work from his regular contributions to popular photography websites like 35mmc and Casual Photophile. We're excited to introduce our 79th In Focus interviewee, Sroyon Mukherjee. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? My favourite images tend to be of friends and family, but I’ll share an image that I like for its own sake (as opposed to purely personal or sentimental reasons). I...

I’m sure a lot of us are well aware of the amazing, historic spectacle UFC 300 turned out to be, but this road trip was much more than just that one night… Denver, Colorado I began the drive to Denver, CO from Austin, TX on March 20th, 2024. I had dates with 2 world-class and world-renowned MMA gyms with some of the best male and female mixed martial artists on the planet, High Altitude Martial Arts and Factory X Muay Thai. On the drive to Denver, I had the idea of doing a portrait series on film of a...

My K1000 I began taking photographs in the late 1980s as a teenager when my dad bought me a Pentax K1000. Both my dad and grandpa enjoyed photography, were big influences on me, and my dad wanted to share the excitement of photography. We enjoyed taking photographs, mainly of landscapes and of places that we visited, me with my K1000 and my dad with his Canon AE-1. When digital cameras became the standard in the early 2000s, we drifted away from film and instead became enamored with this quick and comparat...

The struggle for life Black-and-white photography captures so much emotion, and nothing is more emotive than the struggle for life.  This insight led to the project GRAPPLERS ON FILM, where I use a number of vintage film cameras to capture the struggles of ordinary people training in the grappling arts of Judo, Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu. Zenza Bronica - ILFORD XP2 Submission For those not involved in the grappling forms of martial arts, the goal is to get a hold of your opponent and then force them to...

This week in our In Focus interview, we speak with Michèl Passin, a Leipzig-based photographer and videographer specializing in portraiture and documentary work. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This picture was taken for my project “18:09”. It was shot with a Mamiya 645 1000s on FP4+. After developing and scanning I was blown away how everything turned out. Everything came out the way I planned it. For me it’s just pe...

Slowing things back down Although it’s been 28 years since I first stepped into a darkroom, there’s been a significant gap in time since the last time I stepped into one. I grew up at a particular transition time, like the horse to automobile, typewriter to computer, I started my journey into photography just before the digital camera started making its way into the market and pushing film aside. Even though instant gratification has its place, I still kept that romantic notion of one day getting back ...

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 ...

My camera is a passport to a world of amazing discoveries My adventures began as a five year old. I started spending wondrous times with my dad in the quiet glow of his darkroom. I took great pride with my responsibility to gently rock the prints in the hypo tray. Ah, the sound of gurgling water and the warm orange glow from the safe lights. I was totally enthralled by seeing an image come alive in the developing tray...pure alchemy! It comes as no surprise when I say I frequently retreat to this magical z...

This was a theme free week for Friday favourites which means that any images made using our ILFORD or Kentmere  films or papers could be included. As always you shared a fantastic selection with us but we couldn't choose them all. These are our favourites. @Gravmadboris #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites A stile that is a pain for me to navigate. Kentmere 400 Olympus OM101 50mm f/2 power focus lens @Bennyhillsmum The Queensferry Crossing. Leica M7 + Ilford HP5+ #believeinfilm #fridayfavorites #appicoft...

So, from the official ILFORD Photo website: It’s wide exposure latitude makes it a great choice for beginners, those returning to film as well as the more experienced professional users. With wide exposure latitude, ILFORD says that you can meter HP5+ from 400 to 3200 ISO1. Great, it's like you have it all in one roll, which is exactly why I love this thing so much. It can handle sunny days and midnight shots, of course, depending on which ISO you tell your camera (or hand-held light meter) you have th...

  Wilber (@ccs_wilber) wheelies down a hill in Medellin. BikeLife The first time I learned about Bikelife was at Parque Nacional, Bogotá’s most emblematic park. It was a Sunday and there must have been at least a hundred of them. They almost all fit the same profile: very young, baggy clothes, no helmet. A disproportionate number sported ‘El 7’, a kind of neo-mullet that’s popularity in Colombia predates the current mullet resurgence in the rest of the world. 12-o’clock wheelies...

On the Language of Photographs A photograph is so much more than just a photograph; it holds an entire language within it. Each photograph captures a unique world that exists only in that moment, preserving the memories of the people in it, and the experiences of the photographer pressing the shutter. Today, I want to reflect on my own work and how my favourite images have defined me as an artist. What messages do they share with the world? How have the tools I’ve used to create them shaped their unique ...

Back in August 2000 Last time I have attended a night concert was back in August 2000, Bon Jovi playing at the old Wembley Arena. Great times, really great; but as with all good times, that concert was the last one for me. Life got in the way, and what with this and that, I stopped going to such events. Still have the stub from the BJ's gig, though. With Some Reluctance But life has a funny sense of going round in circles and so I got to experience again the thrills of a night concert. My daughter (1...

This week we interviewed Berlin based, portrait photographer Jakob Stolz for our 'In Focus' series. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? To me this is my most personal photograph I've ever taken. It's my grandfather Kurt who passed away last year at the age of 87. All his life he lived in Duisburg, Germany and worked as a carpenter. I started photographing him 7 years ago and continued so to the very end. These photos are very clo...

The lessons I’ve learnt I would like to start this blog by stating that I consider myself a relatively inexperienced photographer. I’ve been taking film photos for around eight years and have only ever done so as a hobby. However, something I have spent many of those eight years doing is experimenting with double exposures. In this blog I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learnt in that time. If you have any questions I could talk about double exposure for hours and go into a huge amount o...

Happy Accidents For most people in the film community, double exposures are accidents. Happy accidents, sometimes, for sure, but accidents nonetheless. Of course, some people do film swaps, I've done a few and embraced the chaos of the results, but I never got an image out of a film swap that I truly loved. And yet there's something eminently compelling about double exposures. ILFORD FP4+ Photosynthesis Five years ago I started a project entitled Photosynthesis that used double exposures as a way to ...

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...

In our latest 'How I Got This Picture' interview with Ross McDaniel, find out what led him to try something different to capture Arches National Park. Image Title Monolith TECHNICAL INFO FILM USED Kentmere Pan 400 FORMAT 35mm CAMERA Nikon F5 LENS Laowa 15mm F4 EXPOSURE TIME 30 minutes at f/4 Other Equipment Tripod, Remote shutter release LOCATION Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah, United States, Earth FIRSTLY, TELL US THE STORY BEHIND THIS IMAGE. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO SHOOT IT? ...

Dancing in the rhythm of the waves The dark, silky, smooth waters of the canals are silent now, only a few late boats are disturbing the lights that are dancing in the rhythm of the waves. Where there were armies of city guests, only a few hours ago, clucking happily excited about everything and nothing, now only the locals and the (not so few though) night crawlers of touristic persuasion are to be seen, slowly parading the centuries old worn narrow streets, stairs and bridges. La Serenissima is tired, bu...

Say Hello Few people feel comfortable striking up a conversation with a person they haven’t previously met. I refrain from using the word “stranger” because the way I see it, we’re all fellow humans, potential acquaintances, possible friends. And who says they’re any stranger than I am? After all, I’m the one going up to people I meet in public asking to make their portrait. A camera in hand really is a magical device that allows us to meet almost anyone, anywhere. To approach them. Say hello. ...

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, ...

We're thrilled to launch our brand new 'Community Focus' series! In this series, we shine a spotlight on community darkrooms around the world, celebrating their contributions and exploring the stories behind these spaces. Our first interview in the series features Newport Film Lab from South Wales, a darkroom that began as a passion project and has since grown into something truly special. Section 1 - Background Let’s start easy. Tell us A little about the darkroom, what it’s called and how it started...

All the way from Los Angeles, our 83rd 'In Focus' interview is with music and surrealism photographer, Laura Moreau. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This photograph features my friend Samira, taken on ILFORD SFX200 with my Mamiya 645. I was in the ocean, hoping to capture the glimmers, as I have an obsession with them. Suddenly, a massive wave came out of nowhere, and I still can’t believe I managed to jump and take the sho...

Pushing The Limits Hello, my name is Jaylon Cooper, but I go by “Quality Lenz”. I am a photographer from St. Simons Island, located off the coast of Georgia, but based in Atlanta, Ga. I moved to Atlanta to attend college at Georgia State University. I started doing photography in 2019, when I was given a camera by a relative. In 2021, my passion began to fade, so I took a step back to study renaissance painters. Those are the ones I call, “The first photographers”. After seeing the way these artist...

 El Parque Nacional I met Andrés and his buddies at Bogotá's most iconic park, el Parque Nacional. I was filming a video for my YouTube channel (Through the Glass) about the 800 or so displaced Embera indigenous people who were occupying the park. Andrés and crew were skating the park's entrance steps and sharing their boards with a group of Embera children. The Proposal The guys asked me where I was from and we got talking about the analog photography YouTube channel I was launching. I proposed ...

This week, for our 84th In Focus interview, we speak with Austrian photographer and writer Birgit Buchart, who made the move to New York City in 2018. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? In my early 20s, I spent a lot of time on the road with musicians, shooting a lot of concerts and festivals. And while they appreciated the documentation of the shows, I never truly loved the photos. To me it was not very interesting to photograp...

The Main Topics My name is Maria Guțu I am a Moldovan born and  based photographer, focusing on long term documentary projects.  In 2022 I finished my studies at the Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography, Saint Petersburg, earlier, in 2020 I graduated in cinematography at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts from Chisinau, Moldova where I have been studying for 4 years. The main topics in my work are remote places, youth, the notion of the home and the relation between humans and the environment...

Our next Community Focus interview takes us to Berlin, where we had the opportunity to chat with Queer Analog Darkroom. They've created an inclusive space for individuals who face barriers to accessing knowledge about analog photography due to discrimination and marginalization, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn and create. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND LET’S START EASY. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE DARKROOM, WHAT IT’S CALLED AND HOW IT STARTED. Queer Analog Darkroom (QAD) - is a self-organized, ...

Next up, for our 85th In Focus interview, we spoke with freelance event and project manager, Ali Monk. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This has probably been my favourite image I have taken since it was shot back in 2021. I had been spending the day with one of my favourite people in Brighton. Lockdown was over and we could spend time with loved ones again doing all the things we hadn’t been able to do for a while. My frien...

Film Photographers survey 2024 At the end of 2024 we asked you to complete and share our film photographers survey. We wanted to understand what's important to you, the film community, irrespective of which film brands you shoot. We hoped that the results would provide us with an invaluable insight into the behaviours, expectations, and preferences of film photographers around the world. The results Over 14000 of you from more than 110 different countries completed the survey. We saw film shooters of ...

The Essence Of My Home Hello everyone! Today, I want to open the doors of my soul and share the essence of my home: Las Negras and Cabo de Gata. A piece of land that not only saw me born and grow, but also shaped me as a person and as a photographer. Through my lens, I want to show you the magic that emanates from every corner of this paradise in southern Spain, but I also want to reveal the wounds and contradictions that afflict it. I am a native of Las Negras, a small village in the heart of Cabo de Gata...

Dialogues With Nostalgia My work in photography is deeply connected to light and emotion. Black and white analog photography allows me to explore these elements with a unique sensitivity, where each image results from a constant search to capture the ephemeral and the timeless. I shoot with ILFORD Delta 400 and ILFORD HP5+ films, using cameras such as the Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, Nikon F100, and Nikon F6, because their grain and tonal range offer a texture that dialogues with nostalgia, memory, and melancholy, ...

HARMAN technology announces a brand-new, ISO 200, Black and White film in the Kentmere range HARMAN technology Ltd, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of analogue photographic films, darkroom papers, and photo chemicals, has today announced the launch Kentmere PAN 200 a brand new, high contrast, black & white film. Kentmere PAN 200 Kentmere PAN 200 is an ISO 200 black & white film, with enhanced contrast, pleasing, well controlled grain and good sharpness making it suitable for most s...

Everything Shifted I first came to photography as a teenager, experimenting casually with digital cameras. But it wasn’t until after my PhD in cinema studies focused on representations of family in American television, that I returned to it with real intent. Living in Bordeaux at the time, I had occasionally photographed concerts, mostly as a hobby. Then, during the first COVID lockdown, everything shifted. With time slowing down, I picked up my partner’s analog camera and began shooting in the garden,...

HARMAN technology is excited to announce the winners of our USA ILFORD Photo Student Film Photo Contest for 2025. This film photography contest for US students was the first of its kind and produced a large selection of entries making their tough work for the judges to choose the winners. The contest included a category for B&W darkroom prints, that were physically mailed in, alongside a category for scanned B&W negatives with prizes for both High School and College students. One member of the j...

Connected Shooting film is an act of patience, a commitment to slowing down in a world that moves too fast. With digital photography, you can take hundreds, thousands, of images in a matter of minutes. There’s no real cost to over-shooting, no pressure to be deliberate. But film demands something different. Each frame is finite, precious. You select before you shoot, considering light, composition, and emotion in a way that feels more meditative, more connected. The Beauty of Imperfection There’s an...

Best known as grainydays on YouTube, our next In Focus interview features Jason Kummerfeldt, who has been shooting film for seven years and shares his journey through photography, from the bad to the good. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? This image is one of my all time favorites and one of my own few pieces I have hanging up in my cramped no-wall-space apartment: I shot it on my Mamiya 7 on ILFORD XP2 if I remember co...

A Place I Have Longed To Visit I am waiting for a bus, destination Portree, Isle of Skye. The midpoint, a bus shelter at Kyle of Lochalsh. It is the pit stop to one of the most beautiful journeys you can make by road and rail in the UK. This is the trip from Inverness to the Isle of Skye.  Though I have been to Kyle before, it is my first time to the Isle of Skye. A place I have longed to visit, and on this occasion, I had more than a desire, I had a purpose. I'm about to spend the next 2 days shooting a ...

Catching Up Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, is a run of the mill small Mexican city—which is to say that it’s pretty cool. There’s a cathedral, a vibrant market, lots of great street food, and a strong sense of community. I lived in Pinotepa for six months a few years ago while I was working on a project and absolutely fell in love with the place. I returned this past December to catch up with old friends and make content for my analog photography YouTube channel. My First Weekend Back I didn’t have a...

Up next in our Community Focus series: we're in London with Rapid Eye, founded out of love for printing in 1996! Find out more below. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND LET’S START EASY. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE DARKROOM, WHAT IT’S CALLED AND HOW IT STARTED. Rapid Eye started in 1996 by Lee Williams, born out of a love for printing. I was printing myself with a small team for a few clients but I also loved hosting other printers and photographers. Eventually a small community started to form and we let out som...

Our next In Focus interview features Justin Lockey. As well as being  the lead guitarist of the indie rock band Editors, Justin is also a photographer, writer, director and producer. When he’s not doing any one of those things he’s asleep, or messing around with cameras, or reading about lenses and optical formulas. SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE IMAGE / PRINT SHOT ON ILFORD FILM AND TELL US WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? I took this in Venice last year, I was playing around with a rolleiflex ...

The excitement is electric It's a typical Wednesday morning in the tattoo shop I work at. I am trying to stay out of the way but with all three tattoo artists at The Black Veil in Salem, Massachusetts needing the printer behind the desk at the same time, and with me being (also) behind the desk, it's hard to all fit. "I'll just wait over here until you guys are done" I say, and I scoot out of the way to a bigger spot where the floor of the shop opens up into the sitting area. We do the same dance every mor...

Push it to the limits A brand new film is a wonderful prospect in the current analogue photography marketplace, and I am always eager to discover what a modern emulsion, concocted in this decade, can bring to my documentary photography workflow. When Kentmere 200 was announced, I knew I had to time my first efforts carefully in order to have something more than street snaps and mundanity to show for it, to really push it to the limits of what I demand from the film stocks I have become used to. Versatil...

I'm sure we missed a day this week, it seems to have flown by. I can't believe it's time for Friday Favourites already! Thanks to everyone who has shared their images for today's #fridayfavourites. There was a great selection to choose from, which always makes our Fridays enjoyable. Here are some of our favourites. Get involved It's so easy to take part, most weeks are theme frss, (but we'll tell you in advance if it's any diferent). Simply share you images on any of our @ilfordphoto socials and tag us...

For the 7th interview in our Community Focus series we're heading to Oslo to chat to  Cyan Darkroom. Let’s start easy. Tell us a little about the darkroom, what it’s called and how it started. Cyan darkroom is part of Cyan studio that is a co-op community photostudio and workspace. The studio was opened in 1998 and has always had a darkroom attached.  In 2020 we got hold of a separate space where we built a much larger darkroom, hoping that the timing was right to attract enough new users. After a...

 These are portraits from this series. This is “Burnt Orange” —- a B&W photo project on evolving identities and third culture experiences through the lens of portraiture. In my experience being able to connect and share so much of intimacy through photography, I first share that with my friends and the people I meet along my many journeys. These are portraits from this series. Portraiture as a mirror I didn’t really understand the art of portraiture before thsi project. What it means to giv...

The biggest weekend TRNSMT is arguably the biggest weekend of the year for music in Scotland, and yet this was my first time shooting the festival. I was very excited to be shooting it, especially for bands like Fontaines D.C., Confidence Man, VLURE, and Wet Leg. Ordinarily I’ll be shooting individual gigs, photographing one artist, on one stage, over the space of maybe an hour. So while my subject was essentially the same this weekend, it was a very different workflow, with a lot more performances to s...

Interview number 9 in our Community Focus series takes us to Amsterdam in the Netherlands where we chatted with Analog Club Amsterdam. Tell us A little about the darkroom, what it’s called and how it started. Well as we are situated in Amsterdam the darkroom is known as Analog Club Amsterdam open doka. Doka is a dutch abbreviation for Darkroom. And ACA Doka is a collaboration with MK24 which is an art institute in Amsterdam. MK24 has different analog courses and analog printing is one of the courses. ...

Hey, my name is David, better known as @Twostopsover, and ILFORD asked me to share a bit about my 3D printed dual format camera. Who am I? A quick intro about myself: I’m a cinematographer working in the commercial space, and in 2017 I rediscovered analog photography and fell head over heels in love with it. I think what excites me so much about shooting film is the process, and even more so, how much room there is to experiment. I mean, with which digital camera can you swap out the entire sensor wit...

We're now 10 interviews into this series and its been fantastic to hear about so many community darkrooms and the work that they do. This time we're heading to Turkey to speak to Fotohane Darkroom. Let’s start easy. Tell us A little about the darkroom, what it’s called and how it started. The project is called Fotohane Darkroom. It’s a mobile and analog photography workshop based in Mardin, in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. We work mainly with Syrian, Iraqi, and Turkish Kurdish child...

A black and white journey into the depths When I leave home for a day of diving, I always feel a mix of excitement and detachment. A moment alone at dawn, when everyone is still asleep, becomes a kind of quiet ritual: methodically packing my gear, performing last checks, loading film and setting off towards a world apart. My photography was born from a simple desire: to share those moments — their quiet magic, and the subtle mix of lightness and oppression that comes with the depths. Swallowed by ...

How it all began “So what’s your next project?”, my friend David asked me over lunch one day in the spring of 2024. Unprepared for the question, my focus still on my second book, Fragments, which had just been published, my answer was quick and nochalant. “I think I’m going to dig out my 4x5 and shoot some street portraits of total strangers”. I surprised even myself with the answer. It was as if I was sitting in his chair and hearing that response for the first time. I can remember the conv...

A big Inspiration A big inspiration for me is Jill Furmanovsky. I’d been at ILFORD for maybe 3 months when I went to a music photography exhibition at Manchester central library. It featured some of her work. Seeing her contact sheet of Joy Division shot on ILFORD HP5 PLUS was what made me start shooting gigs. It was a band I loved on a product I was now helping to make. Capturing emotion and atmosphere I started taking the odd picture on a little point and shoot at gigs I was going to. Then I finall...

We are delighted to announce the winner and runner-up of our 2025/26 Student Photography Competition. Open to student photographers from around the world, it attracted hundreds of entries from students across Asia, Europe, the USA, Australia and the UK. This showcased an inspiring breadth of creativity and technical excellence in analogue photography and darkroom printing. Winner: Jamie Plater, Stamford College The overall winner is Jamie Plater from Stamford College. Jamie’s striking wildlife image w...

One year ago I was chosen as a winner of the Ilford Community Grant for my project “ePhemeral”. As a dance photographer this was a gift for me, because it gave me the chance of contacting great dancers of different styles and movement dynamics to work with. For me it also meant a vot of confidence in the value of photographing movement, life, and fleeting moments through the analogue medium. And last but not least, it gave me the chance of exploring a new technique, Film Swap. Keep on reading and disc...