I’ve often thought of film photography as being a wonderful series of happy accidents. There are cameras, lenses and film stock that we know better than others, that are more predictable to us, and thus give results that we can be more certain of. However, the outcome of our shutter release, uncovering of the pinhole or application of the other means we use to convey light to the emulsion remains hidden from us until the film develops.
Just as this unpredictability can be diminished by using gear we know well, in controlled conditions, it can be increased by using “toy” cameras, expired film stock, or by any number of alternative processes.
One interesting project I’ve seen lately is Stephen Gill’s “Buried”. From the artist’s own description, photographs were taken
“in Hackney Wick and later buried there.
The amount of time the images were left underground varied depending on the amount of rainfall. The depths that the pictures were buried at also varied, as did their positioning. Sometimes they were facing each other, sometimes back to back or sometimes buried singly.”
The results are intriguingly textural - I wonder if there’ll be a photoshop action along shortly to replicate the “look”?
The illustrative photograph is one frame from a roll of Superia 400 colour print film that was torn inside the camera, accidentally exposed to light, and then processed in B&W chemistry. It’ was taken and processed by me, and is nothing to to with Mr. Gill’s work.
Haha, ace post!
There’s a man I know has left a pile of proper photos on a flat roof, suitably weighted down with stones. They are doing awfully well so far, 3 years later. I’m going to staple a few to the sides of my shed this summer.
Both those sound like really interesting projects - I hope you can direct us to the results of them. I was thinking about this yesterday, and it reminded me of this chap;
this chap. I’m not sure of the original medium, but this fellow uses photographs as an inherently physical medium. The linked work is the aftermath of removing a wall of intact photos, interesting in itself, I think.