Analog BnW 35mm Photography: Black Lives Matter, NYC
A lot happened in 2020 and a lot didn’t. Once the lockdown started in NYC, I decided to invest time in learning film photography. I purchased a Pentax K1000 with a 35mm prime and a variety of different color negative and Black and White panchromatic negative film. I like the idea of ‘film is tangible’, where you ride with the imperfections thus liberating you from the insistence that drives pixel peepers to ride or fall chasing ultimate sharpness in digital photography. The grain, texture caused by visible silver crystals in a film negative’s emulsion is unique to the film process and it’s aesthetic. Some would go on to say that the grain is the image. These images represent my still early dive into this medium of photography where the exhilaration is a combination of taking the picture and anticipating the results.
“To photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
Camera bodies: Pentax K1000 and Nikon F3.
Film stock: Ilford HP5+, Ilford XP2, Tri X-400, T-Max 100
Project description
A few months later, almost overnight, NYC (and other cities nationwide) went from quarantine to protesting on the streets when footage of George Floyd arrest on May 25th emerged where he repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” before he died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I participated in the peaceful protests in solidarity with the need to reimagine the role of police and bring about a transformational change. It was also an opportunity to document these events and express the collective emotion of New Yorkers who unabashedly took to the streets while still in the grip of the pandemic.
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