beginnings
my first roll of color film!
all photos are presented in the order they were taken, unedited and uncropped
shot on a Leica M6 with Kodak Gold 200 film
there’s something beautiful about the first shot on a new roll of film. I love the fuzzy look of film burn.
It’s the annual celebration of Emperor Meiji’s birthday at Meiji Temple. Martial art demonstrations, dances, and music performances fill the air with drum sounds and shouts.
Families flock here from across the city to pray, write wishes for next year, and take holiday card photos. The children look especially spiffy.
mochi for gods
mochi for humans
“ut pictura poesis”: as is painting so is poetry
a splendid exhibit on literature in contemporary Japanese art at the National Art Center
a frequently asked question
Q: ‘Hey Renee why do you shoot film? Don’t you already do digital photography?’
A: For me, the appeal of film photography lies not in its ~quirky~ retro vibe or hipster street cred but rather in its power to make me think consciously and in great detail about every single shot I take.
With digital photography, I can snap a shot, instantly glance at it on the screen, then take another if the first one sucked. I can shoot hundreds or even thousands of photos on one SD card without a second thought, and delete shitty photos to make room for more. With film photography, however, you never really know what you’re going to get until days or even weeks later, after the film has been developed. The stakes are higher, so you’re forced to be deliberate about each shot. I mean, I get obsessive. Is the exposure right? How about the focus? Do I want that branch in the frame? How will this type of film affect the colors after developing? After all, I only have up to 36 shots each roll, so I better make them count.
But it’s this kind of obsession that makes film photography such a meditative practice for me — it’s full immersion. And each roll of film that comes out of it is something precious, 36 frames of obsessive love and devotion, first showered in light and then bathed in chemicals to capture 36 transient moments in time. That’s why I love it.