Final Images Of 2024
I was fortunate enough to squeeze in one last photo session in 2024 before the calendar rolled into the new year. It was a very simple session, using a rented studio in downtown Portland and sticking mostly to working with natural light, but it was also one of those times when I have a feeling I’m going to like a lot of the work we did over the course of a few hours.
I’m posting three images on this blog entry from the first, and only, roll I’ve developed so far. I’ve got eight more rolls to process that I’m sure I’ll get to over the months ahead.
From a technical perspective, the star player in 2024 for me was absolutely Kentmere ISO 400 black and white film. This is the so-called “budget” black and white film Ilford has been putting out and I have to say it has really surprised me in its quality. It’s almost half the cost per roll as most other film stocks on the market right now and the quality is amazing. All of the images you see here had very strong backlighting and yet it wasn’t difficult at all to soup Kentmere 400 in Rodinal and still retain detail. I plan on working with this film stock for as long as I can find it available. It certainly makes my bank account much happier!
My favorite photo sessions are the ones where it feels like I’m hanging out with a friend and talking about life as opposed to working particularly hard. This was one of those times and I can’t help but smile a bit when looking at the images. I had the camera set up on a tripod due to the low light and we’d snap off a frame, talk and laugh about some odd subject for about ten minutes, only to remind each other to get back to work and maybe take another picture every now and then. This can be the best way to make art sometimes. No real pressure to do anything amazing. Just the comfort of good company and faith that your results will be as authentic as possible.
I feel oddly optimistic about the upcoming year even though given the state of the world I have no logical reason to be. I plan on diving into some serious long term projects that I’m looking forward to sharing but I’m also not putting a huge amount of pressure on myself to get anything done by a certain arbitrary time table.
We’ll see what happens…
Camera: Hasselblad 500c/m mounted with an 80mm Carl Zeiss f/2.8
Film: Kentmere 400 in 120. Developed in Rodinal at 1:50 and 20c for 16 minutes and light agitation.
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