An Exploration in Short-Form Video
At the turn of the year, I challenged myself to begin sharing more video content on social medias, namely Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok. The videos have varied greatly in content. In some I am exploring digitally imaging the night sky over several hours, creating one of my favorite types of photos: star trails. In others I invite you, the wonderful members of my audience, to follow as I take a journey with my Hasselblad through downtown Chicago, sharing what my eye is drawn to.
It’s an interesting process making videos. To make sure I’m communicating effectively, I slow down and consider what steps in making a photo I usually undertake without conscious thought. What about a particular scene draws my eye? In the darkroom, how do I choose some negatives to print over others? What about a composition prefers black and white over color?
The videos are a weekly diary of where my mind is creatively. The breadth of the recent videos is fascinating (to me at least). While most have focused on analog photography, they explore vastly different aspects of the practice: one video explores the process of multi-enlarger printing, inspired by the great Jerry Uelsmann.
More recently, in last week’s video, I made prints at the studio for the first time using a darkroom I just built. Special thanks to my dear friends George and Tami for sharing their expertise and equipment in making this possible. The romantic in me loves the darkroom. In many ways, I feel like a parent, slowly nursing a negative to find the best version of itself in the form of a fiber print. A year ago, being this invested in black and white film photography was unimaginable. Today, I couldn’t imagine my art any other way.
My most recent video, linked here, is a journey in developing months-old C41 film. In coming weeks, I hope to create more analog content, trying out larger formats like 4x5” film and maybe even 8x10. With these changes, I anticipate greatly missing the square format. Who knows, I may even begin cropping the larger formats to more closely resemble the Hasselblad.
Please reach out with any questions/comments. I don’t share my work to listen to myself talk; the conversations that follow are always fruitful and informative.
