F-Stop Magazine has been kind enough to feature my work for a third time, this time in their 51st issue, “The Portrait”:

After a few fits and starts (learning the quirks of both a camera that’s close to forty years old and a new instant film that’s not even two years old), I’ve started my first project with my Polaroid SX-70.  Tentatively titled 2012, it will document a typical day for me right now in fifty images or so.  I’m planning on this being a relatively short-term project.  I wish I would have done something like this five or ten years ago–I’d love to look at it now and see how much life has changed.

Amanda got me a great Christmas gift this year: a chrome and leather Polaroid SX-70, a folding SLR.  It was made in the ’70s, and was the first SLR to use instant film.  Check out this ad on YouTube–what’s amazing is the way the mirrors were designed so that the camera can collapse, and the path the light takes from the lens to the viewfinder:

Polaroid stopped making SX-70 film in 2006, and all instant film in 2008.  This led to what I think is one of the most interesting stories in photography in recent years.  In 2008 at the closing of the Polaroid factory in the Netherlands, André Bosman, a manager who had worked for Polaroid for almost thirty years, met Dr. Florian Kaps, a manager for the Lomographic Society.  The two decided to do something–they formed a company called The Impossible Project, leased the factory, and bought the machines before they could be scrapped.  With a team of only ten former Polaroid employees, they began trying to reinvent the film production process from scratch.  The company released its first working film in early 2010.  See more of the story here.

To be honest, Impossible’s film still has a ways to go.  Unlike the old Polaroid film, it remains light sensitive for a few minutes after coming out of the camera, and so it has to be shielded.  It’s somewhat unpredictable, and not completely stable–prints fading over time remains a problem.  The bottom line, though, is that taking the first shot with this film gave me the kind of thrill I haven’t gotten since watching my first analog print develop in college.  Reinventing instant film was a crazy idea, and I like what they’re doing.  I’ll keep buying it, and I hope they can keep improving it.  Not to sound like a Luddite (I still appreciate the ease, speed, and economy of digital photography and will continue to use it), but one of the ironies of digital is that we take more photos than ever before, but rarely print them.  There’s still something special about holding a tangible print in your hands.

Here’s how my first test shot turned out:

I have a new project in mind using this film.  More soon.

I’ve had this project in the back of my mind for about five years now, but I had to wait until we were back in the States to get started on it.  I’ve always been fascinated by the signs in front of churches with advice and warnings.  I think that it’s the mixture of the sacred and the irreverent that interests me, in much the same way as the Mysterious Ways project.  I also like the questions that these signs beg: Has anyone ever become a Christian because of a sign?  Gone to a particular church?  Changed his behavior?

Sometimes you know the details of a project before you even begin, and other times, things change.  This was a case of the latter.  For years, I had always imagined these photos in color.  When I started editing some of the first shots, though, they felt better in black and white.  Everything is being shot on my Holga 120 CFN with Fujicolor professional.  Each church will be a diptych of two squares: a photo of the sign on the left, and one of the church on the right.

“JESUS IS NOT A VICTIM BUT A WILLING SACRIFICE WILL YOU ACCEPT HIM?

I’m thinking of this as a fairly long-term project.  I’m really enjoying working on this so far due to the fact that it lends itself to road trips–something I missed while we were gone.  I originally planned on started in northwestern Pennsylvania and then branching out to other states, but due to the amount of material (eighty-two churches visited and thirteen signs in only four trips), I’m starting to think of limiting this project to Pennsylvania only.

A stand-alone mini website is in the works for Roadside Gospel, which I hope to have up and running sometime this fall.  I’m looking forward to seeing if any patterns emerge over time: Are certain denominations more or less likely to use these signs?  Will there be any noticeable differences in regional church architecture?

I’ve had a great time so far with the Holga–it’s nice to have a camera that’s so cheap, you don’t have to worry about breaking it or getting it dusty/wet/etc.  I’ve gotten my first few rolls of film back.  What I’ve learned so far:

1.) The Holga’s lens seems to be wider than what you see through the viewfinder.  A work-around is to get the shot just as you want it in the viewfinder, then take a few steps forward before pressing the shutter.

2.) Given the Holga’s limited choices of shutter speeds (1/100 or 1/125), the ISO 400 film I’ve been using is perfect for a hand-held shot on a sunny day, acceptable on an overcast day, and too slow for anything indoors.

3.) Scanning film is a bit more complicated than I’d expected.  I’m happy with the results, but it took some experimentation.  So far, the biggest limitation seems to be disk space–you have to realistically assess how big you expect to print.  A single frame scanned at 3200 DPI results in a TIFF file around 170 MB.  Of course, if you want to go bigger, you can always re-scan.

I’ve also started on my first project since being back in the States.  More soon.

I didn’t notice it until our second year in China, as we hit the outskirts of Zibo on a bus ride back from Jinan, the capital of Shandong. But once I did notice it, I could stop seeing it—Zibo was made up of a very definite palette of colors.

First and foremost were the deep red and lemon yellow of flags, banners, and signs. “Red China” is still an appropriate name, but not necessarily because of Communism. Since it’s considered the most auspicious color, you’ll see red everywhere in China:

Then, there was the gray of concrete:

The dusty black of cars and clothes:

The primary blue of construction fences, tarps, and street signs:

And finally, the dusky pink and mint green of the sidewalk tiles. These aren’t limited to just Zibo, either. We visited close to twenty other cities in China, and Amanda was the first to notice that these same tiles were used in almost every city. Even now, when I think of China, everything always has a pink tint:

None of the other towns I’ve lived in—Cranberry, Edinboro, Puerto Vallarta, or Erie—evoke any specific colors. Why do you think that is?

In other news, after a six-month hiatus I’ve started on a new project with my new Holga. This is the first time in over five years that I’ve shot film, and as much as I love digital, I still love the element of unpredictability and expectation that goes along with film.