Film Photography News — May 2020 Recap

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This month’s Letter covers two new product launches, including Lomography’s new Aqua camera, and the magical new Cinestill chemicals. Also, two mildly-concerning news items from Kodak, and Henry’s — the latter being a large Canadian photography store chain.

Sadly, the global pandemic emergency isn’t over, so the focus on it remains throughout the creative community. Analog.Cafe ran the film photography competition, “Monochrome at Home,” asking for submissions shot on black and white film within the quarantine’s confounds. The winner and the eleven participants are named below. Selected submissions are to be featured in the upcoming print publication, Monochrome.

“Monochrome at Home” competition winner, participants, and the upcoming print publication.

Earlier this year, I announced the film photography competition focusing on the incredible health crisis we are facing today. Meant to creatively challenge the participants to document and express the unique and diverse environments, emotions, and stories around our homes. All images were to be shot on black and white film, with a promise of being printed and distributed in the upcoming Monochrome mag issue. A single winner keeps my stash of five 35mm Film Ferrania monochrome film rolls.

I must add that I’m humbled by the response from the participants and the community leaders who have chosen to spread the word about the project, including bigheadtaco, Em, Chi, JapanCameraHunter, Dan Rubin, Film Ferrania, Silvergrain Classics, and Studio C-41.

The winning submission is a photograph by Elisa Caporaletti, from her essay, “Connession,” which presents the idea of the crucial importance that mobile devices play in our lives.

Elisa’s image struck me with its natural, haunting contrast and simple composition that I feel captures the emotional and physical crisis in a way that is relatable, authentic, and free of clichés. And it looks beautiful on paper.

Her image will be featured on the front page of the upcoming issue of Monochrome.

Along with Elisa’s, works by Martin Beech, merimies, norayr, Sona Manukyan, Niño Expectante a la espalda de nadie, Kitja, Paul G., Lorenzo Stolfi, M. Fohl, and Paulo Monteiro are selected to be a part of the publication.

Out of competition, fantastic images and stories by Christian K. Lee and Bill Manning will be making it into print as well. And something from me, too.

All proceeds from sales will go to benefit a charity.

Thank you, everyone! I will be in touch with all of the participants individually to confirm the details.

Lomography Aqua.

Almost every month, since the beginning of the turbulent 2020, Lomography has been announcing new product launches.

May is no different.

This time, the company has made a waterproof casing for their “Simple Use,” a play on “single-use,” reload-able camera available at the store. It comes with Lomochrome Purple film, which can be measured anywhere between ISO100 and ISO400, making outdoor exposures simple.

Cinestill E-6 creative chemicals.

The folks at Cinestill have been making Kodak’s incredible Vision 3 emulsion usable for still photographers since 2012. During those eight years, the company expanded its initial offering to include a variety of products, including the 50D, XX, and a range of film processing chemicals. This week, they’ve teased something new: a simple system for developing slide film at home with added creative control.

“For the first time ever, you can change the color profile of your slides.” — Japan Camera Hunter. With these new chems, you’ll be able to warm or cool your scenes without using a lens filter and choose the level of contrast with an option to expand the film’s latitude or dynamic range. Preorder your magic brew here.

More news and closing thoughts.

Henry’s — a large Canadian photographic retail chain had to shut down some of its locations and propose a restructuring strategy to its creditors, to whom it owes a nasty $24,000,000.

Kodak released its first-quarter earnings report for 2020, which does not look horrible though it already shows signs of a slowdown.

Finally, do check out David Collyer’s incredible new photo essay published on The Guardian website: “All in a day’s work: the coronavirus crisis in a rural district general hospital” — an incredible set of images and stories.

I’m finding myself well-acclimated to be working from home and reasonably accustomed to the new normal, while in a constant state of bewilderment on a profoundly personal level. All the while I feel both flattered and overwhelmed by the increased number of messages and submissions to Analog.Cafe. So if you’ve sent me something, I may take longer than usual to respond — sorry about that.