Like many photographers in this digital age, I have been seduced by the recent build up of interest in film photography. In my own case this renewed interest has taken me back more than 65 years to a passion which I thought was long gone.
When my son and later my daughter were born, I bought a folding Voigtlander camera and began to develop and print my own photographs. I will always remember the excitement that I felt when, as if by magic, images first appeared on the white photographic paper as it was gently agitated in the dish of developer. Later, of course, photography became my career. I worked with 10 by 8 inch colour transparency film, with 5 by 4, with Hasselblads and Contax’s, with Sinar cameras, with Broncolour flash units, in big studios. It all sounds very grand, but really, it wasn’t unusual; all advertising photographers had this sort of equipment at the time. Despite all the bells and whistles, the continuing pressure of creating to order, usually against the clock, eventually destroyed the fun.
And so it was, in the eighties,when, like a tsunami, ‘digital’ swept through the industry, I stopped taking pictures. Years later, I bought a digital camera and I loved it, even though I bemoaned the loss of all my traditional skills. Now suddenly YouTube and the Internet are full of film information, all the things which pre-occupied us 60 years ago and I am back to being a 20 year old; developing film in a little tank in an upstairs loo, wrapped in a black curtain, wet hands and developer running up my sleeves. Grateful for the second chance.
On a more serious note, I am photographing on 120 film and 5×4 film, then camera scanning negatives so that I can print giclee’s from digital images. I am also photographing my paintings so that I can make giclee prints as required. I’ve talked about my first family photographs and here is one which has survived. When I was running my studio I traded under the name Bob Stone and on one occassion I used this picture of my daughter. Like all parents, I still think that she is my baby despite this picture being 60 years old.
