Man, film is very expensive and hard to find! At this point I think I’m better off buying drugs or collecting and spending hundreds for hideous tennis shoes, like folks do. I shot somewhere in the number of 43 rolls this past year and am not even going to share how much I think that cost me.
I do find benefit in the cost, we are in a world where camera companies (fuji) are making cameras with pre-loaded options to make pictures look like they were shot on film. Instagram is more popular than ever, they have somewhere in the realm of 20 different film color presets. Why not be authentic, why not just produce the real thing? It’s an easy choice for me, especially when you can get a lab to do the dirty work and even scan for you!
Although it is hard to stomach snapshots like these as art, I do hope they are at least entertaining. The truth is that pretty sunsets, monuments, and sports just don’t do it for me. I wish they did, I see people making some really cool things and I do it on occasion. However, I find maximum satisfaction out of documenting something that might be slightly insignificant or is imperfect. I’ve always found that the in-between moments don’t get enough credit. Sometimes it’s the little moments that can strike a chord or be our favorite images once created. Sometimes making an image of something slightly insignificant can make it more of a thing than it ever was in the first place. I love that challenge, someone else is already going to photograph that key moment, I don’t need that pressure. I’ll just be over here taking a picture of this patent leather couch that’s a bout to be thrown out, that you have walked past 100,000 times.
I think sometimes I find beauty where most do not, or perhaps I have poor taste.
-Chris
