B&W Film Statement

For many, the pandemic gave us the opportunity to think about the kind of life we would like for ourselves and our family. It certainly did for me, and from a photographic perspective, I began to reconsider the direction in which it was heading. I absolutely love what I do but when it came to landscape I was beginning to feel a little disheartened with the process of digital capture. Some might argue that it matters not what you use, it’s the final image that counts and although, to an extent, they would have a point, I personally derive a great deal of enjoyment from the technical side. It was all starting to feel a little, shall we say, easy. Sure, you still need to be able to compose a scene so that all elements combine to form a cohesive whole but let’s be honest; with a little technical know-how, you can’t really go wrong. Compose, set to aperture priority, activate Live View, adjust to shift the histogram and shoot. If the dynamic range is too great you can bracket and if the depth of field required is beyond the camera/lens’ capabilities you can focus-stack. In the past, whenever I felt as though I was heading towards stagnation I knew it was time for a change either through undertaking a project or purchasing an item of equipment that would radically change the way I shoot. It was time to revisit an old friend.

I have always loved film, but in particular black and white, and aside from when I am leading workshops or photographing wildlife, since the winter of 2020 I have been shooting black and white film, exclusively, using a Hasselblad 501cm. Film is where it all began more than 35 years ago where, as an enthusiastic teenager, I would develop and print my own photographs and upon leaving photography college worked both as an assistant to a photographer and as a black and white and colour printer. It’s difficult to put into words but with analogue, there is a certain aesthetic that you cannot replicate with digital. Furthermore, I wanted a complete departure from my ‘professional’ life; to slow down and not rely on reading histograms and the oh-so-often scatter-gun approach with the resulting hours in front of a computer following a day in the field. With film, I carefully consider the scene prior to taking the camera out of the bag, assess the exposure using a hand-held spot-meter, and when I return home, I put the camera bag down and forget about it. I do other things. Although over that time I’ve exposed a few rolls of colour negative and transparency, at the moment it’s just not for me. It’s not far enough removed from digital and doesn’t create the mood I am looking for in my current projects. 

To say it’s been a steep learning curve would be an understatement. From getting to grips with the Zone System and studying the ‘blad’ V range (you’ve no idea just how many different types of focusing screens there are!) to experimenting with different developers, agitation and drying techniques to produce the best negatives possible. At times, it has been incredibly frustrating (not to mention time-consuming and expensive) but I have loved every minute, and continue to do so.