I’m sure I failed to tell you that Robert gifted me with an old film camera for Christmas. I was delighted. I started with a film camera when I was very very little — my grandmother on my dad’s side of the family gave me a pink and black point and shoot camera at the age of six or so that I used constantly until I upgraded to something else sometime in high school. Speaking of high school, I took eight semesters worth of film photography there which included film developing and print making in a glorious darkroom. I loved those classes very much. Between then and now, I’ve become a full-time working artist (or creative, or whatever you want to call what I do for a living) (everything I can think to call myself sounds a little pretentious), despite the fact that I’m a university drop-out by way of three different institutions. I think instruction is a wonderful thing but there’s no substitute for simply diving into a medium and figuring out your style on your own by muddling through the troughs and crests of creative flow. Never mind being elbow deep, get neck deep in your medium and don’t think for a second there’s a right or wrong way to do it.
Now I’m rabbit trailing a little and pontificating a lot so here’s the bottom line, I’ve always enjoyed photography so returning to my film-y roots has been a true joy. What I cherish about film photography is the delayed gratification. I send it away to be processed and looking at the developed image files is always a surprise for me. I didn’t have to re-learn a film camera. It was like a bicycle — I climbed back on and began to effortlessly swoop about on the asphalt.
The other important thing I want to mention about film is each image I shoot costs me about a dollar so I find myself slowing down and choosing my shots wisely. It’s not for everyone, but it’s for me. I like the pace. I like the sound of the shutter. I like that there is no immediate result on a screen on the back of the camera. Sometimes I think film is one of the last great things.
Anyway, here are some of my favorite photos from the month of May. They were taken, respectively, in a hotel room in Missoula, on the Owyhee River of Oregon/Idaho, at Little Payette Lake of Idaho and Shepp Ranch on the Main Salmon River of Idaho.
No digital image has the grit, grain or feel of film photography, even if you take the time to add some grain back into your image in Photoshop. It might be obsolete, but it’s still very beautiful. I hope you think so too because I’m going to keep on shooting and sharing.
The other day I was looking at some slides from photographs my brother took on his hikes in the alps in the early 90s: Oh. My. God. The beauty. It felt magical to sit in front of those majestic pictures. And how beautiful those photos of yours are! Thanks for sharing your analog treasures :)! What you wrote about “no right or wrong” and trying out what feels right, digging in, being playful is exactly what I’ve been sensing recently. So thanks for rabbit trailing and pontificating. I feel like I kinda needed to read this right now …and take it in…and …most importantly practice it! Cheers to you Jilian, and congrats on the ranch. <3
Thanks for saying thanks for those pontifications!!! HA HA HA!!! Glad I could give you the right words at the right time. Onward! BOLDLY!!!
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I do think your film is very beautiful. It’s softer, more real, with an old school grainy look to it. And, well, I can relate that!
It sure is a handsome little Pentax.
That fuchsia painter is one of a kind! Wow.
There’s nothing like film! Nothing!!! And the paintbrush this year…..somethin’ else.
LOVE “REAL” Film, that’s what I went to Art School for (and Graphic Design)….and I went to 3 different Universities too, searching, searching for that Validation in the Creative Arts! I’m SO Happy for you with your Film Camera, it comes full circle, right? I still have ALL of my Nikon Film Camera Bodies and Lenses and TONS of Film that I rolled myself before I went Traveling. YOU are such an Inspiration to break it all on OUT!! Thank You!! There is nothing like being in a Dark Room, alone with your work, using the Enlarger, standing over the Trays in that strange 1/2 Light that is the Darkroom pathos of moving and working with the Grainy Image that is completely and utterly Yours!! Thank You, as always, for the reminder that ART/Creative-ness is not stagnate in one Genre…..Always moving.
Love and Light…….
🙂 Kristin
Kristin!
Get out that old camera and work it!!!
It’s so much fun!
I agree about the darkroom…I wish I didn’t have to send my film out for developing.
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truly beautiful images, friend.
xx
Thanks, baby! X
“I like the pace.” I like art for this reason, too. Thank you.
Thanks for being here, Helen.
I love pictures on paper, I do like to see them on a computer or whatever but a photograph on paper, the best!!!! Gorgeous pictures as usual, and hope you get in that house soon that you can call home…and workshops etc…etc…have a great Summer!
I know…sometimes I wonder what the heck we’re all doing with our camera and our photos on our computers and devices that no one will ever see 50 years from now because there’s no tangible hardcopy…
What the heck?
Love having you here!
Oh wow, it’s amazing how obvious it is when it’s film. The characteristics are so distinctive!
We weren’t offered photography art classes in the schools I went to, but I was able to take photo-journalism from junior high through high school and I took every opportunity to go out “on assignment” (I totally invented assignments, ha!). My dad was a bit of a photographer, though I believe he loved the chemistry of film development more than the composition, and he bought me a 35mm camera when I was about 13. We spent many hours in his makeshift darkroom. Such a lovely legacy, to have learned a skill that’s so rare these days and to carry it forward.
Clare, it’s so true. It has such a strong, textural look. Just beautiful.
WONDERFUL to have learned darkroom theory with your dad at your side! Amazing!
Oh Marion M Graham and their awesome photography program! I had so much fun in those classes! Always enjoy looking at your BEAUTIFUL shots Jillian.
Maegan!
YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! MMGCI!
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Wow. I don’t think I realized how much I missed film until I saw these. Gorgeous.
Thank you, darlin’!
When you write about the soul-filled process being creating it makes my heart hurt with happiness. Thank you for continuing to share these pieces of your life, I always feel inspired to go outside and to create even if my soul feels tired and bogged down from spending every day in the office.
I’m amazed that there were 8 semesters of photography classes to take? I was in the high school in Toronto for the late 70’s, back in the day of pool for gym, etc, but no photog. How great.