Homage to Kodak- another vintage experiment

In light of Kodak's news this week, filing for bankruptcy protection, I thought I share another experiment with my favourite B/W film: The Kodak T-max. Whilst taking pictures on the car booty with my first vintage camera, I came across another little creative bargain. For £2 I bought this Halina Paulette made in Hong Kong in the 60s. Apparently very popular in the UK.

I had the honour to take the very last roll of film on this camera!

At frame no 24 the Pauletta decided to fall apart. It was a great little camera to play with. Specs include: a built-in selenium meter, a good shutter speed range, bulb setting and flash sync! Plus a good range of f-stops -much better than the Ilford Sporty!


The images below are shot in Brighton North Lanes (Dec. 2011) on 35mm Kodak T-max 100. © Julia Horbaschk. Only basic level adjustments- no sharpening applied. Click on the images to enlarge.

Also check out my experiments with Kodak 120 rollfilm and Ilford Sporty here and visit my Flickr set: www.flickr.com/photos/freshandwild/sets/72157629000113363. Comments welcome.

Ilford Sporty - a few more pictures

Here a few more pictures from the 1960s Ilford Sporty taken in Nov. 2011. Not bad for what looks like a plastic lens. Still have to master the winding mechanism as it's a little random- although some people like the effect (panorama below= winding error). 120 Kodak Tmax 100. No sharpening applied. Only basic level adjustments.

Ilford Sporty experiments

Here one of the negs from my first roll taken on the Ilford Sporti. As I bought it at Car Boot Sale, I thought I could also shoot it there. I wanted to do a project on Car Boot Sales for a while.

I was surprised about the outcome after reading that most users only got blurred shots. This one came out the best- click to enlarge. It was scanned by Tom Wilson-Keller. I believe some sharpening occurred. Will shortly add the other frames and for comparison will not apply sharpening...

I submitted the contact sheet to Photo Collective "Preston is my Paris" who run a curious archive project at the Photo Fringe Open: http://www.findbrighton.blogspot.com/2011/11/julia-horbaschk-camera-ilford-sports.html

Rollfilm: A love story

A few months ago, I sold my Digital SLR and started shooting again on my Bronica. I found a good value 120 back at Clock Tower Cameras giving me an extra boost in using up all my expired film from the fridge. I hope this helped my camera to warm up. I am enjoying the slowed down working procedure of film and the quality of the large negs.

On the other hand, a little frustrating is the limited exposure range and the heavy weight of the camera and all it's needed gear (two backs, tripod, light meter etc). And of course there is the price. With predictions that the end of film is near and shops reducing the amount of stock and upping the price it feels like walking near the edge of the cliff.

However, film just has some excitement to it that digital does not compare with. Even new-comers to the medium can feel it- it's not just nostalgia. Furthermore, going back to my last blog entry and the importance of experimentation it is also rather enjoyable to mix and match different styles of image making and not stick to just one solution. Who knows best then photographer Chris Coekin (Knock Three Times, the Hitcher) who experiments with different styles and presents multi-dimensional projects.

In the process of shooting two new projects, I started to ask myself if it really matters what medium we take the images with and I am currently experimenting with mobile phone imagery to go alongside the 6x6 results. I am even thinking to use the recently bought Ilford Sporti for my other project, which would benefit from a vintage/amateur style, yet have 6x6 frames.

Will reveal the results once I have mastered the task of bulk colour shift/cast removal.

A little creative bargain: Ilford Sporty 6 (1963)

It's important to experiment and to break loose from conventions, norms and expectations. Some would argue this will lead to more creativity - and I need some!

On this note I am writing a blog entry purely hoping to illustrate the point. After all, we lecturers too often have our heads full of rules and regs and yearly CPD (Continuous Professional Development). (Ouch, if Graham ever reads this, I will have to pay up for the swear words!)

Hence, in an attempt to keep my own creative work going and blog once a month, I am writing about what keeps me engaged in the photographic universe.

An Ilford Sporty 6 (1963)

Initially I only bought it for a laugh and £1.50 at my local car boot sale and so far it cost me a few tears with the first film coming out blank. I don't even share much with the Lomo/ Diana fascination and yet something makes me smile when bantering over this little Ilford bargain.


I'm not sure if it's the fact that it's a 6x6 and the last sincere production of it's kind or perhaps that it was manufactured in Reutlingen by Dacora Kamerawerke, just 10 miles from where I was born, and that it has traveled around for almost 50 years, just to be found around the corner from where I live today? I suppose this may be it: a nostalgic moment and a reminder that photography is often oh so autobiographical.

To see the first test shots of this little bargain camera check back shortly...

Ref: http://www.thecamerasite.net/07_Viewfinder_Cameras/Pages/ilford-sporti.htm

The Bicycle Revolution at Ningbo Photo Festival

I just received a note from Wonder with images from the Ningbo exhibition. Unfortunately there is little online about this new festival (in it's second year) but it was an honour to be invited and have my work printed and presented there. My thanks go to the curator, Wonder Wang for giving me the opportunity to show this body of work, and to Barbara Herman from Stern magazine for identifying it as worthy work during my MA.

On show were: 200 images, 16 photographers from 7 countries.

Here a few images from the show, link to my body of work and the small book I devised. Stay in touch for further development of the work as I have some more plans...

Exhibition images

In the footsteps of Iain Sinclair

A few weeks ago I was once again in London for my yearly Photographing London workshop with participants from Morley College. This is the 7th time I have organised the workshop and it was by far the most intriguing. Every year I try and come up with a surprise location to which the participants respond. As a long term fan of Iain Sinclair, I knew I had found it when rediscovering his fantastic Thames River Walk, only a short trip away from the Metropolis. A worthy link to the map and podcast here.

The day was also used as a challenge to get out of our comfort zone. Participants were: Saron, Rob Crane, Jenny Eccles, Paul Street and Carol Jones. Find their images on our flickr page.

Here I try to sum up the experience in a sound slide show. This is one of my very first attempts to bring images and sound recordings together. The voice over was caught on Jenny Eccle's Blackberry and the water sound on Rob Crane's iPhone. Thanks to both of them for taking part in my experiment. I converted the files in Audicity in order to work with Soundslides. Soundslides can be downloaded for a free trial (ad version) and bought for very little online. It is far less complex then using Final Cut Pro but of course less advanced.

The sound is by no means perfect and you may have to turn up your volume. In any case I learned quite a lot about sound conversion and am pleased with the result. Enjoy!