Rian Dundon – ‘Fan’

Fan: Following Fan Bingbing around is the product of the 9 months Rian Dundon spent traveling around with Ms. Bingbing as an informal English tutor and candid, slice-of-life photographer. He had no clue who Ms. Bingbing was, and neither do I, really.

Mr. Dundon was in China on assignment for Time when he took the job, and for 9 months jet-setted all over mainland China with Ms. Bingbing, photographing her as she went about the business of being one of the biggest film and music stars in China.

https://youtu.be/wrmBgynAxZE
Continue reading “Rian Dundon – ‘Fan’”

Will Steacy – ‘Deadline’

From 2009 to 2014, Will Steacy photographed the Philadelphia Inquirer as it passed from one investor to another and slowly descended into bankruptcy. Deadline is the result of that effort: news stories, photographs, advertisements, a whole newspaper edition about the death of the newspaper, printed as the last run of the newspaper printer…

It’s a masterwork.

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Imation Scotch, Square Frame

So after I finished a whole roll at half frame, I wanted to see how the Diana Mini handled in square format, and slapped in a roll of Labeauratoire’s Scotch Imation Color HP 100. In hindsight, I probably should’ve shot half frame with the Scotch Imation, since it’s rolled with merely 12 shots per roll vs. the Hawkeye’s 20 frames. Oh well, next time maybe. Continue reading “Imation Scotch, Square Frame”

Kodak Hawkeye, Half Frame

After my initial whirlwind test of the Diana Mini, I wanted to slow down a bit, so I popped in a roll of Labeauratoire-rolled Kodak Hawkeye 400 and went at it a bit more slowly this time. 37 half frame shots, from a 20 exposure roll: not bad!

They are half frame, so there’s something a bit less about them than the full 35mm frames—I’ll get into that below—but I’m not sure I can really put my finger on what it is. dusk

First a little background… Continue reading “Kodak Hawkeye, Half Frame”

Alec Soth – ‘Nineteen Teens’

Back in October, Alec Soth launched a Kickstarter to provide some funding for his Winnebago Workshops series of trips around the country to provide free workshops to young artists. One of the rewards was this book, Nineteen Teens, and after some hesitation, I jumped on it.

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Enter the Diana Mini

Thanks to my darling, adorable wife and my awesome Mom, when my birthday arrived, everything on my wish list had arrived and was sitting in boxes next to the door. One of the boxes held a couple of fun new toys from Lomography: the Diana Mini, and the LC-A Instant Back!

More about the instant back later: today, it’s all about the Mini! Continue reading “Enter the Diana Mini”

Waste Not, Want Not

After my disappointment with the HD 400, I decided to shoot through as much of it as possible, as fast as possible.

To that end, I loaded a roll into the FG and just shot around at random. It still took awhile, too long, really, and at about frame 18, the meter locked up again.* I pulled the film out and finished it off in the FE (but forgot that the FE was set on ISO 50 from the fun I had with [not yet mentioned, soon though, maybe] so the last 6 or 7 shots were wildly overexposed (3 stops) and all shot from the window of the car while waiting at stoplights… waste indeed).

Hanabibti, backlit Continue reading “Waste Not, Want Not”