Sharing some 35mm photos from the last year or two. From around San Francisco, Coney Island, Brooklyn and Manhattan
Clara Nova – Echo
Clara Nova – Echo
Directed by Clara Aranovich
“Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption.” -André Bazin
Aranovich writes, “This has long been my favorite quote about cinema; it gets to the heart of the nostalgic power of film, a power that overcame me at a very young age and has led me to pursue it ever since. Celluloid has always carried a mythical quality to me...”
from Booooom
Aranovich uses this simple premise, a sort of lo-fi take from both old and new, to tell a story of place and probably empathy and understanding as well. New mobile technology (instagram -boomerang) for it's premise; meets old film photography for it's aesthetic. It's interesting to see as well, with all the effort put into grading and color for digital film to get back to the tack and grit of old film, maybe its simpler just to go back and find film.
The technique is fun as well, shooting with a camera that has 4 side by side by side lenses. Its a fun idea to see 'steroscopic' in a why that is so immediate and intimate. like a Polaroid. Goofing around with your friends.
The story is simple: have a walk around LA, make friends, enlist people into your art/film/project, make some dance shapes with you dance friends. It's nice. It's wholesome. You can see they are having fun especially in using the fact they are shooting something to share with and meet new strangers along the way.
Walk Like You - Alex Prager
Alex Prager is a photographer and filmmaker who trades in beauty, nostalgia and surrealism.
There's a great deal of storytelling happening in these photos. Beyond just one surreal moment, or some reference to the past, she is setting up some scenes with many things happening at once. A car crash, a dead lover. Almost like a renaissance painting or comic book spread. Everything happening at once. A much bigger story implied by the specifics of this captured moment.
There's a lot of ambiguity here, but there's also implied depth.
Coming from animation or film I think this is a very interesting way to think about storytelling. Can you put enough details in the image to imply a bigger story? Can you tease them? Draw them in with a few threads but not weave the whole thing together? I think this is a powerful idea for film or photography alike.
Walk Like You: Leiter
Saul Leiter as one of the original on the street, lifestyle, candid New York photographers has maybe one of the best eyes ever. Every composition, shooting through things, refletions, shapes color, silhouettes, stolen moments. they are all lush and evocative and wonderful. I have many self portraits shot reflected on glass that are a personal homage to his work. And many other things I've shot owe to his composition, or use of foreground middle and background to internally frame the subjects.
