dylan barnes | blog

Category: Reader Excerpts

  • Reader Excerpts: His Loss

    Reader Excerpts: His Loss

    Today, Zeno Gill shares a visual through black and white 35mm film.  The work, entitled “His Loss,” is an all too common emotional journey of heartbreak lived vicariously through the model, Shannon, which depicts visual representations of the emotions we experience.

    Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice.  If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me.

    His Loss, shot and written by Zeno Gill (Instagram)

    There is a dusty, graffiti-riddled underpass north of NYC that I noticed from a train and immediately wanted to explore and use as a shooting location. One can only access it from a bike path, so Shannon and I had to walk in. We’ve collaborated many times and always have great conversations, so we had a good chat about breakups while we walked. I think that in these images we captured the strange state-of-mind that can occur after a breakup — loneliness, dejection, and helplessness combined with a sense of freedom and  exhilaration. Even the ugly parts of life have some beauty.

  • Reader Excerpts: Find It

    Reader Excerpts: Find It

    Today, my very good friend Alex Pawelczyk shares with us some personal and passionate thoughts regarding his recent life changes that have had an affect on his creative means and inspiration.  He speaks about his latest experiences in regards to losing (and regaining) his sense of spontaneity and how his camera is his tool in finding inspiration as well as reclaiming his sense of purpose to cope with the recent changes in his life.

    Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice.  If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me.

    Find It, shot and written by Alex Pawelczyk (Instagram)

    Sitting in my kitchen, smoking a cigarette, and having a coffee in the morning has pretty much became part of my usual ritual. I wake up, shower, shit, shave, and move out. The ritualistic tendencies we give ourselves are common ones. Everyone likes coffee (shut up, yes you do), and everyone has habits. I am no stranger to habitual practices, but for a year, I felt more freedom than I ever have from the mundane.

    I used to pride myself on being impulsive. I loved not having a schedule to force myself to stick by. I would go to work Monday through Friday, but everything else was unwritten. I would go to the gym when I wanted, I would drink when I wanted, and sometimes, I found myself staying up until 5am the next morning pumping tunes and developing my ever-present backlog of unprocessed film.

    I had a recent move to El Paso, Texas, where I feel as if I’ve lost my inspiration. I just spent a year of my life in South Korea, where I found love for myself, a people, a country, and most importantly, my true passion for photography. I feel as if my work has inexplicably tied itself to that country, and by the orders of the military, I’ve been required to come back to the United States, El Paso worst of all, where it feels as if I have no opportunity for inspiration.

    I’ve found myself sitting in my apartment, staring at my camera, wishing I was back in Korea. I’ve felt a range of different emotions during this. I picked up my Leica for the first time in a week and realized there was already a thin layer of El Paso dust settling on top of it. I felt broken, as if I should apologize to it. That block of finely tuned brass and steel, a tool of the trade, being unused by some bitter and scared craftsman.

    Today, I’m breaking that cycle. I opened the box in my closet and pulled out a few things.

    My Dark bag.

    My Patterson tank.

    A couple of graduated containers.

    Developer and fixer.

    Can’t find my thermometer. Fuck it. No more excuses.

    I’m back. Even when you feel you’ve lost your inspiration, realize things come and go. Get out there and fucking find it.

  • Reader Excerpts: Found and Lost

    Reader Excerpts: Found and Lost

    Today’s feature comes from Craig Peters.  Craig shows us a large format photography project that visually represents his feelings towards certain aspects of his life.  

    Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice.  If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me!

    Found and Lost, shot and written by Craig Peters (Website, Instagram)

    The images Uncomfortable, Sadness, and Revelation are all about my reaction to having anxious feelings towards questioning my religious beliefs. The latter piece being the acceptance that it is alright to not be religious, as I experienced some anxiousness in questioning my beliefs. The symbols on the torso in that image are the Pax Cultura Freedom symbol, an important symbol in my own life regarding the freedom of the arts. The other three images are a physical manifestation of those feelings. They are the personification of my emotions depicted in the first three images.

    So in the studio for the still lives, I would get the lights how I wanted and turn off all of the lights. In darkness, I would open up the 4×5 lens and pop the flash manually depending on how closed down I wanted the aperture to be.

    For the three portraits, I used a rail 4×5 and lit it with modeling lights and synced the flash to the shutter on the 4×5 lens.

    For Anxiety I wanted a self portrait with myself obscured. I took a piece of sheer black cloth and shook it in front of me with continuous LED lights for about ten seconds.

  • Reader Excerpts: Views from the Porcelain Throne

    Reader Excerpts: Views from the Porcelain Throne

    Today’s feature comes from Jack Allan. Jack showcases a point of view piece from no other place than the toilet.  The uniqueness is not only in the subject matter and where the series is shot, but the beauty lies in the limitations of the series, both in process and final production.

    Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice.  If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me!

    Views from the Porcelain Throne, shot and written by Jack Allan (Website)

    The View From the Porcelain throne was a project that I think I had been musing about for quite a while before making the work. I’ve always loved the imprint that people leave, and interior design taste levels are something from this I feel there’s a large amount of people who make thoughtless choices.

    On the flip side, there’s some very well considered spaces, but maybe they’re executed in a way that seems a little bit off. Take framed artwork for example. How is it framed? What have they chosen to be framed? How is it placed on the wall/shelf/other surface? This is what I looked for in toilet cubicles. Little details that make the space unique.

    These cubicles are familiar to a very large portion of the world, and they’re a space that everybody is equipped to occupy and ultimately you’re forced to see from a set viewpoint. What I was looking for was a collection of these views, but with quite heavy limitations on what equipment I was to use.

    I had just finished my university course in photography, and having spent the last 2.5 years photographing in quite a formal way (re shooting, showing progress in work, building a large body of work etc) and with a Rolleiflex, it just felt natural to grab a disposable camera for this project. What better than a camera with a basic set of features for a project about toilets.

    Equipped with a viewfinder, film advance, flash, lens, film counter and what loaded with FujiFilm Superia 400, this little guy had 27 shots ready to go. The entire project was shot on this one camera as it gave me a crappy limitation on shots I could take, and the inability to edit the photos afterwards. Except this crappy camera only gave me 26 frames in total, limiting me a tiny bit more!

    Working with a 35mm lens in these small spaces was entertaining, and even more so when the flash would go off, and another patron of the bathroom would make audible surprise noises. I quite enjoyed this little quirk amongst all of the strange spaces I found myself in.

    There’s a green monstrosity of tile that was in a hotel of cool blues and grey tones everywhere but this toilet, a frowning frog in a frame watching you and a stall with what felt like a white stable door keeping you safe. These spaces became more and more entertaining as I pressed on!

    The final result consists of 26 6×4 prints from Boots (a drugstore photo lab) which are limited to this run as another level of limitation for this project. This very sudden impulsive project is probably one of the favourite pieces of work I’ve made, and I think I’ll always have a soft spot for it!

     

  • Reader Excerpts: Guildford on an Olympus XA2

    Reader Excerpts: Guildford on an Olympus XA2

    Today’s piece comes from Sikandar Rana. Sikandar shares a place that is close to his heart and how he has interacted with that place through creating images, both snapshots of daily life and deliberate, time-consuming photo creation.  As Sikandar takes us on his move from London to Guildford, we understand his appreciation for simplicity both in the city in which he resides as well as the simplicity in his Olympus XA2.

    Reader Excerpts allow those who read Now Developing to become part of the collective by sharing a written piece alongside their images on a topic of their choice.  If you have any ideas for a piece and would like to have it featured here, feel free to contact me!

    Guildford on an Olympus XA2, Written by Sikandar Rana (Instagram, Website)

    The town of Guildford, in Surrey holds a very special place in my heart, in that it was the first time that I ventured outside my London home to live away from it for a significant period of time. This time spent living away from home was due to the commencement of my degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Surrey. The jump from bustling London to a relatively quiet, serene town was quite a shock, but wore off after the first few months.

    I stayed in Guildford for four 9 month periods, one for each year of my course, with the remaining three months of each year being spent back in London. Despite my initial fears, there seemed to be no shortage of things to both see and do around campus and the local area, from attractions such as Guildford Castle to the multitude of events organised by the friends I’ve come to know throughout my degree.

    In addition to the places in and around campus that I deemed worthy to document, a few images in my collection also capture the first time that I had lived in rented private sector accommodation. This was the case during my fourth year, having lived in university accommodation during the three years prior.

    I’ve been practising photography on and off for about 5 years now, but it wasn’t until the last two years of my degree that I began taking film photography seriously. What began as an attempt to document the antics of those friends of mine who I wouldn’t have seen as frequently once I’d completed my degree blossomed into so much more during those final two years of university.

    Like many other advocates of film photography, I came for the visually pleasing output of most film stocks, and stayed for the way shooting film slows one down and makes their photography more deliberate.

    I brought the Olympus XA2 that all of these images were taken on in my final year of university, with most of my prior photography being done using digital cameras. I wanted a small, compact way to shoot film day-to-day without sacrificing quality and the signature “look” that film is known for. I also have a Pentax ME Super, but that is usually used when I go out with the intention to take photos, and is much better suited to the slower, more deliberate types of photos that I shoot when I go out with this purpose in mind. Both cameras were bought from eBay, and have served me very well, being as reliable as can be.

    I started shooting colour film initially, having being drawn to the pleasing examples of different film stocks posted all over the Internet. Due to the low cost of Fujifilm Superia 200 and Kodak Colorplus 200, those were the two main film stocks that this series of photos were taken on. I bought the rolls of film used for the series from a combination of Boots and London Camera Exchange outlets found in Guildford’s town centre.

    London Camera Exchange in particular turned out to be a treasure trove of film and photographic equipment, and I’ll definitely be stopping by to pick up a few rolls next time I find myself in the area. The rolls of film were developed and scanned at the same Boots outlet that some of the rolls were bought from. Thank you ever so much for reading my insight of Guildford through the lens of my XA2, and happy shooting!