Aurelien Heilbronn's Portfolio

Dear Readers,

Things on the film horizon are definitely getting better, since many young people in their early 20s are getting into the analog world. As a proof, we host (after a long hibernation) Aurelien, a young talented photographer/filmmaker.

Born and raised in Paris, he moved to New York in 2012 and then to L.A. He is a young director, doing music videos, commercial s and shorts but with the firm intention to direct features one day. He started doing film photography only two years ago, after borrowing a film camera from a friend –then, he got hooked on it.

While he's been taking photos for practically all his life, without thoughts to make a living from it, but from a sheer joy. He is also a firm believer (as I am) thet the eye, photography-wise, can be trained to the lens-so it's not only a matter of inspiration, but also a matter of discipline and hard work. Being a self-taught photographer, he wasn't bound to obey some rules as too many people do. He prefers photography to filmmaking when it comes to work »lean«-no need for a crew, a significant budget and other paraphernalia.

He deliberately chose analog photography because he wants to make every single shot to count, in contrast with so (too) many, countless phone-made photos, shot every second. Aurelien's work can be seen on his website. Enjoy his photos! 

All photos copyright: Aurelien Heilbronn

Tiziana Gualano's Portfolio

Dear Readers,
it is always so enchanting to discover young people who started to do film photography from scratch. As is the case of Tiziana, she found in film  photography a way to express herself, and a way to establish contancts with many of them. And it brings her own way to see the world around. Tiziana is from south of Italy, where light has some specific charm. Since she's only in her early 20s, we can only imagine how long and adventurous her photographic voyage will be!
She uses mostly film cameras (zenit ET, zenit 122, zenit 12xp, kodak 35MD point&shoot and a polaroid), besides a DSLR, but film cameras are her love no.1. As for films used, she gets them from both Kodak and Fuji. She doesn't use an exposure meter and it seems she doesn't need one J  Last but not least , she gets inspired by a single day, every day,  from what she sees. Otherwise, Vincent Gallo's or Gus Van Sant movies are  her source of inspiration, or even  John Frusciante for the music.
Tiziana's photostreams can be found on Flickr and Tumblr.

All photos copyright: Tiziana Gualano

Corinne Perry's Portfolio

Dear Readers,

It is incredible how many nuances a niche photographic discipline can accommodate. For example, the last featured portfolio was from Mathieu Noir. He makes some delightful hand-colored BW photos. Likewise, Corinne is also a master in this, almost forgotten, photographic technique. But her style is considerably different. I would say her photos are more »introverted« and »esoteric«, but that's just my own opinion. Fact is, Corinne uses the very minimum amount of coloring, but that's also the very aim of her technique; she only accentuates the aspects she wants to. Her biggest basis of inspiration were two of the greatest feminists of the past century: the photographer Francesca Woodman and the novelist Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

When I kindly asked her a brief description of her work etc., I received such a concise, self-confessing description, almost metaphysical, that I just could not make it any better in making a summary, only worse. Below is the summary, by her own words:

"My work resides within the tradition of self-portraiture, with the foundations of my practice originating from my fragile emotional state. My life and art have become inextricably intertwined, greatly influenced by my diary and the feelings it holds. To keep this emotional state consumed deep within would allow it to thrive, but through the honest self-portrayals of Misery, Delirium and Melancholia, I am offered a cathartic release and an opportunity to produce something beautiful from inner pain.The work is produced in my bedroom, with this room transcending into a mental space in which I am able to address, and act out my emotions in front of the camera. The places in which I photograph become my skin with me often layering paint on to a wall to convey the felt emotion that cannot be seen.

 Though my work is deeply personal the deliberate act of concealing my face disrupts the gaze between self and viewer, allowing personal identity to transcend into something which becomes more universal. With the vulnerability expressed in my work, being further emphasized by the small and intimate format of the photographs.Though taken in the present, my work exhibits influences of a past-era with the use of traditional photographic methods. This is greater complimented by the intimate hand colouring of each piece until the image is born."

Corinne’s work can be seen on her website. 

All photos copyright: Corinne Perry

Random Quote

"The fact is I could state and support the statement my frames are never tilted. You see, choosing the horizon line, the horizontal edge as a point of reference, is arbitrary. You can use a vertical edge just as arbitrarily."   Garry Winogrand

When digital comes to help film shooters

We certainly live in a weird era of humankind...while many of us, analog photographers mourn the "old good days" when you could get all the photo materials one could ask (including the revered Kodachrome), there are some good things in being dived into the digital age. Even for "pure" analog lovers. Sometimes, digital gadgets just come in handy for the analog world as well. Oriol Garcia kindly asked me for the opinion about his new iPhone application (PhotoExif) he wrote. The application is intended to store EXIF and GPS data  of analog shots which can then be useful later when these shots are digitized. While not being an iPhone user myself, I can hardly comment the whole thing  per se, but I like the idea...

Mathieu Noir’s Portfolio

Dear Readers,

It’s been quite a while since we hosted the last portfolio (for reasons pointed out formerly). I am quite sure anyone of you, when you see a hand-tinted BW photo, first thinks about Jan Saudek. Not wanting to be unjust about the Maestro-his photos deserve admiration-but there are others (albeit few) masters of hand-tinted BW photos, including the young French photographer Mathieu Noir, currently residing in Wellington (New Zealand). The only trouble with the young masters of the hand-coloring technique, including Mathieu, is that they are not as famous as the great Saudek. I hope Mathieu will gain the due recognition among the photo community. But there’s more about Mathieu’s work; he also tastefully  masters the art of pull-developing his negatives-take a look at the “creamy” highlights of his “regular” BW photos-and, last but not least, the almost forgotten art of analog photo manipulation (no Photoshop whatsoever). He uses several negatives (even shot in different places or countries) and combines them during the printing process. About the latter technique, he states “I like the idea of capturing places or moments that never met to achieve one photograph”- so true. He started to do these photo manipulation techniques because both pre-visualization and post-visualization abilities are obviously required. He also says about the matter: “The photographs I make can be aesthetically coherent, but I try to create then in order to be read such as independent visual poetry.” I agree. And to point out is also the fact that all this striking results have been made using rented darkrooms, not his own (not having one a the moment). We can only wish Mathieu to get a lucky strike soon, to be able to settle his own “sacred place”, i.e. the darkroom.

Besides Saudek, his influences range broadly, from the early anonymous photographers, as well as numerous Eastern-European photographers, such as, Vojtech V. Slama, Josef Sudek, and other various like Ouka Lele, Sarah Moon, Doisneau and so on.

Mathieu’s other work can be seen on his website. His wish is to make a photography exhibition at Toi Poneke Art Gallery entitled “Hand Colored Visions and Skies”. And we just hope this exhibition will be soon. Enjoy his work!

All photos copyright: Mathieu Noir

When Instant Film becomes a Movie

No, it's not another failed attempt (like some 3 decades ago) to launch the Polavision film. Rather, it is an exquisite result of a stop-motion video created from hundreds of instant films from the Impossible. Here, Walter Lukens (and the team) created the last videospot in NYC.