Round 1?

This post is a little different; at least it feels like that to me. It’s about experimentation and the inevitable mistakes one makes in this process.

I recently started experimenting with film cameras, as I was curious to see what differences, if any, exist between analog and digital mediums in photography, coming from a predominantly digital background. I’ll talk more about the overall experience in a different post, but today I’ll be focusing on one very specific type of experimentation I did in the analogue world: multiple exposures.

Multiple exposures for me have been an interest of mine for some years now. I think I first met John Carbis’ work when he was doing multiple exposures in camera on his dslr. I remember I felt a pull to experiment with the technique but my camera, being an entry level dslr, didn’t have that function to do so in-camera, and something about doing it later in Photoshop killed the appeal for me. So I placed that urge on the shelf for the time being.

When I connect with the Phoenix Film Revival start-up, and start going out full analogue on some of my walkabouts I realized that I can experiment with double exposures rather easily on film, without having to upgrade the camera I was using. After a quick youtube video search for a tutorial on how to do these with the Minolta I’m using, I started experimenting with it a lot more, to a point that 3 out of 5 shots were double exposures.

Things happen, and it took a couple of weeks for me to see the results of one of those rolls, and see how these looked for the first time. During the waiting period, I kept on shooting when I could, experimenting with the urban theme and with still life. As I kept experimenting, I started feeling more and more excited about the possibilities of multiple exposures, depending on how these turned up. I felt a gate being lifted inside, ready to let water come pouring in.

As I get the scanned versions of those negatives, I realize several things. Something about my technique, or the camera, wasn’t advancing the roll properly, and instead of several distinct frames, I had a strip of continues of multiple overlapping frames with no clear beginning or end. In other words, the roll wasn’t advancing to an unexposed section of film and rather just advanced a little just kept slapping the exposures overlapping each other.

I’m able to see the shadows on my intended shots, but with other frames randomly being overlapped, it became something else. With a distinct disconnect, between my intended picture and the resulting image, I can’t help but consider these failures (with a few exceptions). Something technical or mechanical I have to overcome, or learn how to deal with, to make these images more intentional rather than accidental.

For now, got some air knocked out, I’ll steady my breathing and push back to see what else I can do with this.

Andres Gonzalez

Note: I had to bring these images into Lightroom and do some mild digital processing to slice up the long set of overlapping images into different frames, and since they were exposed more than intended, to bring the exposure down a bit and bring out some of the colors.