The Human Spirit on Film

The human spirit. It's something that only a photo can so uniquely capture. It can portray a thousand different stories to a thousand different people if you put it up without words, or you can use it to portray a specific story that you want by putting the words behind the picture. Pictures of people are also one of those things that when you sit down twenty, thirty, forty years from now, you will look back and memories will come as well as questions. What ever happened to them? Did they ever do that thing they talked about wanting to do so much?

While you can see the majesty of nature in a landscape from New Mexico, Northern California or Pennsylvania, the way that a portrait evokes emotion is unparalleled. The human face is a landscape all in itself with expression lines and feeling that can be felt simply by looking into that person's eyes. The power that architecture like the grain silos in the southwest can create in a photo can't be compared to the power that a person shows in a photo simply by how they're standing or how they're dressed. The story behind the portrait is always something that will hold a place of highest regard in the society of film photography.

Stats: Leonard, Proprietor, Leonard's Barber Shop
Augusta, Georgia, June, 2001

Painting With Light

Portrait of Emily Tomlin, Rochester, Minnesota, November 2011

Or, this could be called film from the freezer, as I shot this photograph on a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X, 32 ASA film that expired in 1969.  It held up well.  I took this photograph with a tripod-mounted Rolleiflex SL-66, loaded with the great old stuff.  Zeiss Planar 80mm lens/f2.8, f5.6 at 1-1/2 minutes.

I only used two sources of light:  A 25-watt desk lamp behind the armchair, and a diffused flashlight.

Thanks to Emily Tomlin, especially, for being extremely patient and still during the shoot. 

Rediscovered Negatives: Portraits

Alisaith, Cookstown, New Jersey, 2003

A frequent subject of my camera's lenses is Alisaith, but this roll escaped development for years, until I pulled it from the freezer last month.  I usually use available window light to illuminate my indoor portraits, but we wanted something with a more nocturnal feeling.  Using a low-wattage table lamp (upper right) for backlighting, we set up two candelabras for our prime lighting source.  Shooting with some of my stash of old school Kodak Tri-X (expiry date, August 1972), we were able to obtain a very painterly portrait.