I’ve recently fallen in love with film photography. I tried to fall in love 4 years ago, with a Holga, but I wasn’t quite able to find a reason to keep shooting film. I had put 1 and a half rolls of film through the Holga, when I tucked it all away in a closet and ignored its presence. Each time we moved I was forced to remember that I had film sitting in a cabinet, but I had no desire to do anything with it. After Clickaway in October something switched on in my mind, and film became irresistible. I shot a roll through my new medium format camera and decided to drop the 4 year old Holga roll off to be developed too, crossing my fingers that the film had survived the wild temperature shifts from 2 cross Atlantic moves on a non-temperature controlled container ship. Opening the scan file was akin to dipping into a time capsule. So much has changed in 4 years! The images aren’t perfect, but I don’t think Holga images are supposed to be perfect. The minimal amount of control that the camera body gives provides some freedom from technical considerations and the latitude of film to absorb exposure decisions and dynamic light allows the photographer to focus on the moment, rather than being a complete stickler about settings.
