Suspect Photography

Photography is a drug, it can be your savior, a north star in times of trouble. I mean it, when you lift the camera to your eye and view the world through the view finder native troubles are sidelined and creating the image takes center stage. Recently my wife Barbara and I had to drop everything and take care of her aging mother in law in Milan. While we braced for the worst, the little lady has recovered and we are back in NYC.  

The following text is a the narration from the slide show you can view on Youtube.

This family calamity had moments of full attention and lots of down time. Using the down time to mitigate the situation would lend peace and purpose to this dark time. So I did what every self respecting photographer artist would do and make a “creative plan” that is really art therapy. Taking stock of what I had and where I would be I vowed to push myself to its completion. 

Setting parameters. 

Before leaving I took stock in front of my antique breakfront that houses my camera collection. The task ahead was a heavy one, and I wanted to reach deep down chose a camera that is challenging (requiring focus) and inspirational. Recently I swapped out straps on my gorgeous Nikon SP (the rate 2005 reissue) and I was keen to bring it into the field. It had been over a year since I ran a roll of film through the camera and it’s always a pleasure to use, the camera feels so good in the hands. What optics to bring? For Lenses would be a 35mm 1.8 and 25mm f4. Check. I also have a new iPhone 16 Pro Max I had just upgraded from my iPhone 13 so that would be my “mobile sketch book”. Check. Because I am a serious photographer and I have been so successful with my current camera set up, I packed the Nikon Z9 and the super versatile 24-120 f 4. Along with two laptops (my airbook and B&H work laptop) I stuffed it all into a Tenba back pack and along with Eisenhower my faithful Chihuahua I jetted off to Italy.  

We are staying in the Bovisa neighborhood of Milan and there is an old school film lab around the corner from the flat, “Speed Foto” that maintains a nice selection of used analog cameras they display in the window and a great selection of different films. After sorting out important health obligations I eagerly headed over to peruse what vintage cams they had and most importantly, buy a few rolls of film to shoot. I picked to something weird, Lomography “lomochrome” film in a three pack. Each roll has it’s own color funk, turquoise, metropolis, and purple. The process is C41 but I after shooting with them, I surmised they are a slide film (positive) that are maximized for C41 process making them negatives. The formula and process makes odd color shifts in different spectrums. The results are weird as you can see from the below work. 

I resolved to finish those rolls in the 12 days between flights. I felt the first roll was getting into form and getting used to the camera which is requires lots of work for urban street photography. The camera is fully manual exposure and focus. Due to its compact size, changing aperture is difficult and the view finder for these old eyes is challenging. I brought shoe mount meter, but the on switch stayed on during the flight and the button battery was dead. I resolved to go meter less and use my years of intuition to guess the exposure. A few days in I wanted to see how accurate I was and downloaded the Lux app on the iPhone. 9 times out ten I nailed it. 

The above parameters made for a very exciting photography distraction. I got to make some work, challenge my skills and focus on photography in a total way. I have a new found appreciation for how good the modern Nikon Z series cameras are. The Nikon S rangefinder system is 1950’s, my Z9 and Zf are post covid tech- 2022, a whopping 70 years of photography progress! It shows in every aspect, but I have a saying, “you have to know where you came from to know where you’re going”. The mini project fulfilled that in a profound way. I’m also happy to report that Mom is recovered and doing well. She has a bionic enhancement of a pacemaker, but her body is 1930’s. She’s like the Nikon SP and Nikon Z9 combined!