Nofilter
London, 20th August 2012
I shoot expired film. I have a number of weird cameras, some way older than myself, some more recent but equally going against the grain of the unstoppable hyper-sharp-giga-pixel photography trend. I even process my own film, usually flouting the instructions and treating my chemicals in ways that should get Amnesty banging at my door some day.
The results are often weird, and wonderful.
So I get the counter-trend of "vintage" digital photo applications. I really do.
But if you, developer of yet-another-vintage-photography app think you are going to seduce me away from my celluloid ways with your fancy-crappy filters, think again.
You just don't know me so well.
Yes, of course, I like you: thanks to you, I can see my friends' life unfold. That's a given. But your "vintage"-looking filters cannot replace the joy of my weirdography (or lomography™, or wayward photography, or whatever), because what I like about it has little to do about how the end result looks. It's all about surprise.
It's about taking a film roll of the spool, hanging it above the bathtub, and thinking “that's not mine… merde, who gave me this batch of film again?”. It's about scanning a strip and giggling at how spectacularly bad (or good) the pictures turned out. And it's about giving negatives weeks, sometimes months to mature, re-discover them as I develop and scan them, and re-create their story. The photograph becomes the raw material, not the end product.
Give me an app without live preview, sequester my shots for a random period between a day and a year, and I might just give up my film cameras. And even then…
London, August 2012
Previous/Next
When I Grow Up
2012-08-08
Quelle est l'espérance de vie des grands voyageurs? Une moyenne pondérée, un minimum, un maximum? J'aurais peut-être dû passer plus de temps à Okinawa.
Amsterdam
2012-11-08
C'est une chanson de Brel, mais pas celle que l'on croyait. Bien sûr, ils boivent, boivent et reboivent, et pas seuls les marins. La nuit du samedi cent fois écourtée de rires et de cris ivres et enfumés. Mais sur les bords de l'Amstel, c'est sa maison que j'ai trouvée: des tas de fenêtres, et presque pas de murs.
Nearby
2011: une retrospective en instants
2012-04-09
Instagram, Path, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr et j'en passe — j'étale autant que possible mon ombre numérique ailleurs, et la reconstruis ici, à mon gré, en mes termes. Et si je reprenais tous ces instants maintenant bien loin de leur contexte, et rembobinais leur histoire? Et si je réinventais cette année 2011? Secouer la boîte aux images, et les laisser raconter.
Dérive, Londres
2014-12-31
Février 2013. J’aurais pu me douter que cette dérive n’en était pas une; pas tant un ode au hasard partagé qu’un vecteur d’approche. Un chimpanzé sans combinaison spatiale. Laïka sans harnais. Deux voyageurs de l’espace-temps, faisant fi des distances et des fuseaux horaires.
Signs of Life
2012-12-30
Rebellion
2015-02-21
Commuter Blues
2017-03-26
