Visual Stories

I started using digital photography around 2001. Coming from an intense analog photography period, using black and white film, developing it myself and using my own darkroom. For color work, Kodak Ektachrome Slide was my favorite choice.

Until last year.

I got infected. It started by reading a book: “The Revenge of Analog”. Telling the story of how analog technologies are coming back: vinyl, tabletop games, and… film. I got curious – reading magazines on analog photography, learning about companies that actually produce and sell film.

In September 2023, I was visiting a photography fair that had a section for analogue photography, and… I found myself buying my first film.
Not for me, yet.
But… I actually bought a film after more than twenty years.

In December 2023 I finally got a Canon AE-1 body along with a 50mm FD lens and a Kodak Tri-X film (now for the purpose to use it myself).
I replaced the light seals of the Canon (that was actually fun!) and gave the analogue adventure a go.

Guess what – that was so much fun that – besides shooting film – I entered the realm of rangefinder photography – getting a used Bessa R2M together with a 50mm Voigtlaender lens and another roll of film, a Ferrania P30. If you get into adventure, why not try something entirely new (I never shot rangefinder before, my grandfather had a rangefinder camera that I played with when I was seven years old).

I got back the first scans of these two rolls of film (the Tri-X and the Ferrania P30) last week … and I love the results. Not because they are technically better than my digital pictures (they are not), but because the process was so much fun.

What lies ahead – the usual process when you are infected by the analogue virus: you get the kit to develop black and white film by yourself. You buy more rolls. You get your old scanner out of the basement and study development cookbooks … there is more to come!