Last Updated on 08/16/2016 by Chris Gampat
All images used with permission of the photographers. Lead image by Paul Van Bueren.
Actress Keira Knightly said something very profound about film photographers once:
“I’ve noticed that the people who started on film still have the ability to see the person in front of them. Whereas for a lot of photographers who have only ever worked in digital, the relationship between the photographer and the person who they’re taking a picture of sort of doesn’t exist anymore. They’re looking at a computer screen as opposed to the person.”
Portraiture is something indeed that is very personal to many of us. But so is film. We’ve went through our archives to round up a number of film photographers shooting portraits that you’ll be inspired by.
Bruno Massao
When I finished my photography classes, I started to work as a freelancer photographer for some news agencies, but most of my work came from photographing independent concerts. I spent years doing this kind of work, and just got bored until I decided that I had to take a break and photograph for myself. I just started to take portraits of my friends and a friend of mine asked me if I could shoot her in lingerie, because she wanted to give a book with these photos for her fiancee. We scheduled a cheap hotel to try to do some pictures before hand, but she loved the result of these photos and wanted to use them instead.
Anastasia Egonyan
“I was thinking about this lately and I came to a conclusion that film is actually a game for me. I like to play from the very beginning up to receiving the scans from the lab. It’s a drug, simple as that. Once you try it, you will never forget the feeling of excitement while waiting for the pictures a long time and finally seeing them. Otherwise you must know that doing film photography really makes you a perfectionist freak. I value every single shot on my roll and I hate to waste any, that is why it makes me take my time and do only one good shot per pose. And the grain. I love grain, I need grain, I pray for grain as that is one of the best things that we have in photography.”
Simon Chetrit
“My primary format is medium format, where I only have 10 shots to the roll. Suddenly having 36 shots is like, “Whoa, I can shoot like CRAZY! SO MANY PICTURES!!” Let alone with a built-in flash and super high ISO. I find myself actually shooting more when the amount of pictures I have are limited. Like, all this film in my fridge is going to go bad if I don’t shoot the hell out of it soon. Kind of like how you’re less likely to swipe right on Tinder now that the swipes are finite.”
Malea Blackburn
“My photography has changed through the years but I remain wedded to film. I find nothing in the digital era that can compare to the emotion or rawness that film provides. Perhaps it’s the textures, the grain, the grit that I find incomparable or perhaps it is the one on one connection with your subject, your camera and yourself? I find the constraints and dedication completely fascinating as well as creatively liberating.”
Paul Van Bueren
Cambo SC-1
Kodak Portra 160 NC 4×5″
“I love to shoot people in different settings. In a documentary way, just how they are at the time I find them. I also like to direct people. I can do that in my commercial portraits. And in my fine art portraits. I like people in generally. I like to discover what is ‘it’ that makes this person unique. I like to photograph them in an ‘authentic’ way. By that I mean the feeling / expression in the photograph needs to be real.”
