Travelling through the Lens
I know I travel a lot.
Travel is one of the defining traits of my personality. It gets me up in the morning. It gets me excited about work. It gets me organised. It gets my blood rushing.
I also know I photograph a lot.
Self portrait in the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia
Nikon F3 (35mm) on Portra 400
Over the last few years I have often pondered what frames my images. There has been a fair amount of wildlife photography, emerging from numerous trips to the savannas, rainforests and mountains. I have also dabbled in fashion, theatre and commercial photography, all for a little coin of course.
But now with a steady job and a propensity to leave the confines of my trusty childhood town of Johannesburg, my camera is rarely left behind. But further still, I wanted to start creating something that is more personal, more esoteric than what I have done in the past.
Part of this style defining process would have to come from selecting the places to visit, and the second aspect would be choosing an appropriate photographic method.
In the past, photography was always associated with speed, sharpness and high frame rates, to freeze animals in motion or to have a large pool of images to choose from. From owning a DSLR, I quickly drifted to a Fujifilm system to take advantage of the high burst rates with a long telephoto lens. At this time most of my travel encompassed safari destinations, and such was the appeal of these cameras.
Valley of Pigeons, Cappadocia
Fujifilm X-T4, Acros Red film simulation
But as I played around with that camera, I began to appreciate its size and a feature known as Fujifilm Film Simulations, which allowed you to take photographs using filters or presets that emulated the look and feel of analogue photography. I had never thought of ever taking pictures using such an archaic format and to me the feature felt gimmicky. Granted, several years down the line I have used the Film Simulations and it has gifted some interesting results. However, this gimmicky feature (sorry to all the Fujifilm Simulation lovers out there) actually awakened an interest in something more tactile and far less accessible: analogue photography itself.
*Pentax Auto 110 on Lomography 110mm films
Looks are one thing, but as I keep highlighting on my disastrous dating adventures, it’s what is inside that counts. A whole world of beautiful optics, unfailing mechanics and a slower, more thoughtful process was opened up to me. My uncle, upon hearing about this new interest, fished out an old fungus-infested Canon F-1 and the journey began. Today I own three trusty film cameras across three different film formats: 120mm, 110mm and 35mm. While 120mm and 110mm are somewhat secondary to my regular weapon of choice, the 35mm Nikon F3, I find the world of film photography opening up possibilities for versatile looks, satisfying colours, dreamy monochromatic vistas and, perhaps most important of all, a higher appreciation for every single image that comes from pressing the shutter button.
*Mamiya 645 on Portra 400 120mm
Travel photography is usually predicated on the idea of preserving precious memories for you to look back upon. However, taking a film camera, with its limited number of exposures, and the physical pain of getting your film hand checked at security, makes you place much higher value on the images you take. Your choice of subject matter, your composition, the way you select times of the day to visit certain places and your interactions with the people you meet are immediately transformed because of the tool you now hold in your hands.
I do believe photographs are not made great because of the choice camera used. But if a photographer is using equipment that they do not enjoy, the resulting photographs are likely to be bereft of the passion for photography that would have otherwise been present had the photographer relished their tools.
This little blabbering of mine is the first in an ongoing series where I will write about my adventures with a film camera in hand. On occasion I may include stories of travels where the camera was a secondary thought, but where I carried one nonetheless.
Colaba, Mumbai
Nikon F3 on Kodak Ultramax 400
From now on, these articles will include much less about cameras and much more about the places themselves. I hope that this will result in far more elegant prose, since looking back on this article (although I have tried exclude technical terms as much as possible), it does read like a drab blog post.
I hope this finds an audience somewhere, even if it’s just two of you. But much more than that, if someone reads this and picks up a camera to take on their next trip, my job is done. Safe travels.