The Art of Film Photography

My favorite place at PrairieView is a room that is entered through a black metal revolving door. Once you enter through the door it opens into a room with a dim red light, and the smell of salt and vinegar chips that lingers in the air.

Yes it is true; I have fallen in love with the darkroom. I love creating prints in the dark, and watching them appear before my very eyes.

Creating a print is a process. You begin by shooting a roll of film (with a limited amount of exposures). Taking the roll into complete darkness to load onto a reel and place in a light tight canister, all done without the use of sight. Then for the next ½ hr or so, you handle your film with care as you place the various chemicals in the light tight canister and agitate the film insuring that the chemistry is able to reach every inch of the strip of film. And then the moment of truth happens. The film is finished being developed, its time to take it out and set it in the wash. But first I must look at my film. I really cannot wait; I must peek at just a corner to see if the images have appeared. With a smile on my face from seeing the small negative squares, and a sigh of relief that the process has worked yet again, I place the film in the wash and then take it out to dry.

Once the film has been developed it is time to make a print. I must select the negative, and then develop with care, choosing the crop, the boarders, the contrast, and even changing the amount of light that reaches certain parts of the picture.

When taking pictures the “traditional” way there are so many options. You can choose the type of camera you want to use, the particular film that you want to use, and process to have the filmed developed. Each choice changes the outcome of the final piece of art.

Taken with HP 5 Film

Taken with Slide Film

Cross-Processed Developed

Cross-Processed Developed

120 Film taken with a Range Finder Camera

The last few weeks in Analogue Techniques we have been using pinhole cameras. We each brought in a canister of some sort (I brought in an old cookie tin) and transformed these in simple cameras. We spent the remainder of the day running in and out of the lab taking pictures, developing them, and beaming with joy of the simple process of image making.

Our stack of canisters ready to be made into pinhole cameras

Self Portrait taken with my pinhole camera. Exposure was for 4 min.

Pinhole Photograph

Pinhole Photograph

After reading this post you may think that I will leave school and be a devout film photographer, leaving behind all of my digital gear. That is not true. As much as I love film, there are aspects of digital photography that I have a deep respect for, and appreciate what digital photography can do. But there is some sort of magic that happens when producing a picture with a cookie tin, or developing film from an old 1930's box camera. It is a hands on creative process, and I hold a deep respect for all those film shooters out there.

Caroline Wintoniw

PV Diploma Student

2011-12