Once upon a time I was 19 years old. I was proudly carrying a Minolta X-300, the first slr that I ever bought, loaded with black&white film and I was roaming around the city to capture the 36 pictures that the roll of film was allowing me to shoot.
That was many, many years ago and when I found a forgotten box with printed photographs from that era, I shivered from mixed emotions. The apparent nostalgia for my years of youth but also an intense curiosity about the kind of pictures, my young self used to take.
The content of that box took me by surprise!
Obviously I didn't remember what pictures I had taken so many years ago. If I have found them mixed with the work of other photographers there was no way that I could tell them apart. But that was my box, no doubt about it and so was the content. I took those shots, I developed the film at home and I printed them with a Krokus enlarger at my kitchen which I used to transform into a darkroom.
That's as far as I can remember but what kind of pictures were waiting for me in the box and most importantly, how much different would they be if I had taken them as my current version of self?
To my surprise the main difference was the vast upgrade in my equipment after all those years. Some minor technical flaws were more than obvious. Over or underexposed shots, out of focus or a bit blurry ones are things that could still happen to me if I tried to shoot with that camera and film. But I can still recognise my photographic "style" or "eye" or whatever you might call the set of characteristics that distinguishes one photographer from another.
And that was something I wasn't expecting!
I kept staring at the pictures wondering what that might mean. Remember that I was 19 years old when I took them and I am over 50 by now.
The good version is that I had established a photographic style from a very young age and I stayed loyal to it, as the decades were passing by.
The bad version is that I haven't really evolved as a photographer and apart from the technical upgrade, I have remained stagnant to what I already knew.
The first version is flattering while the second one is a bit sad.
Which one is the truth though?
Before I end this post I wanted to include a few more pictures that I took today, showing the actual box and the printed photographs that I have found. As I was scanning them and cleaning the files from dust spots and scratches I was thinking that they are already different. What you just saw on your screen only resembles to the printed pieces of paper that I held on my hands. But that was the only way to share them across the globe.
Pros and cons,
I guess.
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
and there is something in those photos. are we more forgiving for photos taken on film? even mistakes look good on it :D there are some missed focus and blurs that i would probably never be able to recreate on digital to look good :D
or maybe as everything is sharp, clean, exposed right it lacks the human feel of it :D
I was thinking about the same thing. Most of them don't match up to the standards I have today, I would probably delete them on the spot, if I had taken them with a digital camera but I do like seeing them now.
I don't know if we are more forgiving with film or we are exaggerating with the capabilities of modern cameras. I mean looking at a file taken with a 30 megapixel sensor, at 100% and wanting everything to be absolutely sharp is too much. How many of our pictures are going to be printed on 1 or 2 meters long paper to claim such detail? And yet we do. And when we downsize them they look almost too perfect to be real.
And yes, I don't think that I can recreate this feeling digitally either. But maybe an AI can :)
Wow! I was delighted to see your photographic past, your beginnings. These photos are very good I think, and they are already a document of that time.
There are people there, I like it, so it's already something different from your work I've seen here.
Keep on dusting! 😃 😉
Thank you Sofia, I am glad you liked them!
Yes, I have became more reluctant including people in my pictures. Times has changed too. People are more suspicious and are thinking of the worst scenario when you point a camera on them and I prefer to avoid arguments with strangers.
I think there will be some more of that old stuff though :)
I understand you, it is not easy to go around in that plan, in this case I think that cell phones are more discreet, you just have to have a high-end one hahaha.
Ωραίες αλλά πολύ μελαγχολικές μου φαίνονται 🤔, νομίζω ότι είναι η διαφορά που βλέπω στο φωτογραφικό έργο σου τότε με το σημερινό, εκτός βέβαια από την παρουσία κόσμου όπως έχουν παρατηρήσει πολλοί εδώ χαχαχα. Στις σημερινές φωτογραφίες σου βλέπω αλλά πράγματα, γαλήνη και σιγουριά.
Μελαγχολικές ε; Μπορεί να μην έχεις άδικο. Τα νιάτα είναι ωραία αλλά και δύσκολα :)
Φαίνεται ότι όταν ήσουν πιο νέος κοίταζες τον κόσμο με τα μάτια από το σκοτεινό μέρος σου, αλλά τώρα που είσαι λίγο μεγαλύτερος τα βλέπεις όλα από το φωτεινό μέρος σου και γι'αυτό θαυμάζεις τόσο πολύ την φύση 🌼🌳🌊🍃🦋🐕🐈. Μπράβο σου γιατί ο περισσότερος κόσμος τα κάνει ανάποδα χαχαχα 🙄🤦🏻♀️, καθώς περνάνε τα χρόνια αρχίζουν και τα βλέπουν όλα σκούρα 😕😂🤷🏻♀️.
I understand that you have that predisposition hahaha.... joke. Man, these pictures are great.
I don't think you're stuck. It's just that you look different. It seems to me that in your youth you were more daring. I'm challenging you hahaha....
Haha thank you!
Challenging for some old style street photography I guess. As I replied to @sofathana who also noticed that I avoid taking pictures of people, times has changed, everybody is suspicious and agitated and I don't think that I can move around the city with a camera in hand, like I used to. Of course there are the touristic places where I just look like a tourist taking pictures but it is not the same.
Anyway, I'll see what I can do for you :)
I think this photographer will take up the challenge @nanixxx 😄...
Haha, we'll see :)
😆 😉
Thank You very much for participating and for being part of the Black And White Community!Congratulations. Today's #monomad first place is yours.
Thank you very much!
I love looking at these photos! What a lovely find you've made! Even at 19 years old you had that excellent photographic instinct which has grown over time! Applause and thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much for saying so! I am glad you liked them, they were a lovely find indeed :)
Thank you very much @qurator and @brumest for your support, much appreciated!
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