I’ve long enjoyed the square format, indeed my first camera was an Ilford Sportsman, and what a terrible camera that was! However for a 7 year old in 1976, it was magical! The excitement of opening a new box of film, usually went hand in hand with a holiday, or travel. Who would have thought that little “crappy” camera would have had such an impact on my life, and that all these years later, photography and travel are still my two favourite pastimes.
These days of course, I can travel at will, subject to life’s usual restrictions. My square camera of choice is now a Hasselblad. To say that I have mastered the art of developing black and white film is perhaps stretching a point, but I can certainly do it proficiently. Is the magic still there? For me the answer is yes. I have a great digital camera, a Fuji X-T5, but that returns less magic for me. The act of handling the film, the chemical process, and the act of doing something physically, rather than sitting in front of a PC, is “my thing”. I don’t see me ever giving it up. I was the same with super 8. I didn’t give it up – in effect it gave me up! Yes, I know it’s still possible, and yes I still have my camera, but at, give or take, £100 for two and a half minutes – that ship has sailed! A roll of FP4 developed at the kitchen sink is still, not only a possibility, but a joy.
Life does of course move on, and technology accelerates away. I find myself raging at most of it. To me it seems so poorly designed for any end user. It often assumes a huge level of knowledge or understanding that is not necessarily there. None of it seems possible without being bombarded with adverts, and these days I just can’t be bothered with it.
All the images above were made with the Hasselblad on FP4 film. Developed in Ilfosol. Except for me to say that would be a bare-faced lie. They indeed were “created by me” but in about 30 seconds, sat at my PC. I had assumed that Ai was something that was still in it’s infancy and that any images created would still be obvious, that was until a work colleague showed me some. My jaw hit the floor! Still I imagined, it would be expensive and very complicated. Wrong. I was introduced to “Microsoft Image Creator”, apparently it’s powered by “Dall-E 3” whatever that is! Tap in a sentence as simple as “Black and white photo of broken window, a little ivy, industrial decay” and bang, there it is! Magic, certainly, almost frightening. When we look at a photo in the news what are we looking at? I noted that on BBC the head image used on the recent moon landing was a “render”. I’m reminded of the (curse?) “May you live in interesting times!
Chatter: none!
S.H.O.U.T. 
These images are magical. Love the frames and the square forms. About AI. I don’t care. It’s no matter for me if AI can create “better” images of the same scenes i take. For me the process of taking images, developing process and scanning process of every single image is the Joy. To sit in front of the AI and to say it what to “create”, personally for me is too boring.
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Hi Victor – my thoughts exactly. I marvel at what is possible, I’m not sure we need it! One of the reasons I love film photography is that it is something I can do without sitting in front of a PC. I do too much of that already! Out and about with a camera is good for my health. Hope you are keeping well. All best wishes – Andy
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Thank you for the response Andy. Yes, my workday is to sit in front of two monitors -.IT and information security. So when i have free time i also prefer to spend it on walks, photography, sometimes on bike trips, playing guitar or developing film 😉 Just dreams to start doing the whole dark room printing process. The best wishes to you too !
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There’s just something about medium format film that still gets me excited from putting it into the camera, then shooting it, and trying to get the bloody thing onto the spool when developping. It just feels so different.
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Hello! I agree with you about medium format. I’ve always liked “handling film” whether movie or stills, and there is indeed a certain something about medium format. I’m not a great lover of grain generally and of course 120 mostly solves that. But I also like the square format (I use 6×6). Like you I’ve had issues getting the film on the damn reel, and what really annoys me is that I can load a longer 36 exp 35mm in seconds – always fumble with 120! I have a final tip to try next reel! I’ll see how that goes. I intend to get out there more this year and have just purchased a “brick” of 120 Pan F!! Thanks for commenting – All best wishes Andy
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I don’t mind grain, especially when it is purposeful. You may have gathered that I’m not a proponent of the spray and pray theory. Pray yes, but not spray. When film was de rigeur then i think we really were more mindful. Digital took that away.
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Hello! – I think film really does slow us, and make us more mindful, cost if nothing else! I’m also starting to think that there is a correlation between film size too, the bigger the format, the more thought! Hence phones contain 1000’s of snaps, while 8×10 ‘ers make 4 photographs a day! With regard to Potsdam, I was quite happy with the results, but I saw no gain from using it over good old FP4, and that is easier/cheaper to buy and a better bet to standardise on. If ever you feel the need for another Peace Lilly, just let me know!! – Cheers Andy
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