Experiments in 35mm

So, I mentioned in my last post Disguise that we were 'scared' of losing the photos on film due to under or over exposure and the fears were well founded – after 2 processing attempts on two different films, I found that the camera was not working. The films came out blank, and though there were chances for over exposure the fogging on the negatives appeared without any intact negatives. I had a look on the internet and this kind of gross overexposure is usually due to a light leak in the camera, which is really unfortunate as it prevented me from doing any printing.

However, the annoyance at having lost these shots is interesting. On my second roll of film I decided to go out and take a 'test roll' of nature photography around campus. I thought I was finally getting to grips with aperture size and shutter speeds, by exploring detailed berries on bushes, moss on twigs and landscapes filled with details of trees... I did a few close up shots with the background blurry and a few shots with a greater depth of field that had objects in the foreground blurry to experiment with how light and focus changes the composition of the picture.

I'm sad to say all of these were lost... But interesting questions still remain here. The act/gesture of photographing still occurred, the thought process and decisions around composition still occurred, but without the document the act becomes redundant, meaningless or anecdotal.

Is say-so enough to validate the act? No, it's not. And that's why documentation is such an important act in itself.

As an aside, the process of processing was actually rather enjoyable. I have decided that art + chemistry = photography. It's a wonderful combination of disciplines! And the anticipation of *not knowing* how the shots will come out and waiting for the negatives to come to life is pretty exciting. I suppose in some ways it's how a painter feels when they've finished a piece – a sense of accomplishment that they 'made this' happen.