 |
'Across the Seine' (2013)
Zoë Bull |
Summer. Holidays, sun and photographs.
The magic thing about photography, now with it's instancy, is that it is so accessible. You can just reach into your pocket or your bag and whip out your phone or tablet and take that picture of a beautiful Parisian building and edit it within minutes of it's capture. But then it just sits there for a while or a little longer while yet, collecting invisible digital dust. It sort loses it's value, don't you think?
Sometimes if you have a collection of images, such as from a holiday, you may transfer them to your computer, before another couple of months, before they actually get printed. Do they ever get printed? Really? How often these days do your holiday pictures get printed and returned to you in the post, enclosed within an envelope? There is such excitement in that and it rarely happens anymore.
The present alternative seems to be a photo-book. They can look good, but where is the tangibility; the feel of those thick self adhesive pages, lightly covered in clear film, protecting each individual print, that you have taken time into thinking about and capturing? Is it more about the collection of photos as one, rather than the individual photos that make up the collection? It's hard to tell, isn't it?
 |
'Stacked Chairs' (2013)
Zoë Bull |
However, regardless of what the modern norm seems to be and how agreeably affordable it is, I wanted to do something a bit different for my recent holiday in Paris. It was hot and the sky was blue, but I had in mind, from the very words that initiated the trip that I wanted to photograph in black-and-white film.
It had been a while since I had photographed with Ilford HP5 film seeing as the darkroom seemed to be too long winded for me when you would only achieve several decent prints after a whole day in there - I contradict myself with some instancy that I do need. So I have been using Kodak coloured film instead, for the meantime. I do however, adore the aesthetics of black-and-white film, with it's fine grain that gives it that timeless look and the purity in the tones of the highlights and shadows.
Digital photography is still fantastic and I use it a lot, but it's only crisp. The image of the chairs I captured, would still be beautiful in a digital crisp in black-and-white form, but for an artistic purpose I personally think that the fine grain of the film, brings some little extra magic. It brings value to the image, that I know wouldn't be there if it was a single photo within 200 other photos I took that day.
 |
'My Notre dame' (2013)
Zoë Bull |
I only took two films with me and got about 65 well developed images back, by sending them to one of the few labs in the UK. When it comes to black-and-white film, there is no point going to Snappy Snaps or Boots, because they won't be able to do anything about it. It's not like coloured film where the negatives are digitally developed, so it felt quite special knowing that these films would be developed in a different way. I even got a CD with my prints, along with the negatives.
 |
'Eiffel in Seine' (2013)
Zoë Bull |
The magic of film is that you have about 36 exposures, 36 chances to capture your holiday in the way you want to. You can really think about what you want to take and what would make the moments away from home special. There is more of a reason behind why you took them, rather than just working on impulse. But nonetheless, you can work in the same way with digital photography if you really want to. I like working like that when I can. I ask myself *
What do I really want to capture?*. I want my images to have a purpose and not just sit around on the drive of an electronic device or computer.
I want to make the most of my photos, we all should.
 |
'Let us play' (2013)
Zoë Bull |
If you recently have used some black-and-white film and you are looking for a lab to get them developed, try
B&W Film Processing based in Plymouth, UK.
