On Monday Feb 5th 2018 I officially released out into the world a project my friend Chris “Elvis” Koehn and I have been working on for a few months. It came about because of social media but the result is something tangible that you can touch and feel and see images in something other than a black mirror. I am proud of what we have created and have been humbled by the support from so many friends and strangers. This project has opened a veritable pandora’s box for me and is just the beginning of many more projects yet to come. When Alicia at Queens Shop reached out to me I didn’t realize just how much of an impact that was going to have on my world. She found my work on Instagram and asked if i would be interested in being her next resident artist in her shop. I came by her shop and saw the space and agreed to put some stuff together, while we were talking I had mentioned this book idea I was working on with a friend and she was like rad we can do a book release when we open your showing. I excitedly agreed and then while walking back to my car had an oh shit moment, I had agreed to release a book that was still just a fucking pipe dream. I had already been shooting photos for the book idea but had yet to sit down and figure out what this book was going to look like. Chris promptly volunteered to design the book for me but I’m stubborn and stupid so I took a stab at designing it, ordered it and when it came in I realized I had made a huge mistake. Pride swallowed, I hit up Chris and asked if the offer still stood for him to design the book and he said yes.
The first draft he sent me blew my fucking mind, it was undoubtedly a bazillion times better than the piece of garbage I made on my own. We bantered back and forth and edits were made, a few short weeks later “Queen City Bodegas” was born into two beautiful editions a portrait trade book and a landscape photo book. Orders were made and preparations went into action for the book release. This was all new and crazy to me, I had never had my own exhibition or created and released a book before. Feb 5th came and I was nervous for what the night would look like, lots of friends came through and books were sold. This whole experience was kind of amazing, I have to thank Instagram for linking me with Queens Shop and making this whole thing happen. I am hugely appreciative of Chris for being my adventure pal and making this book with me. I’m looking forward to the next projects coming up and am so glad this box was opened.
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I was gifted a wonderful little treasure by my good friend and adventure pal Chris. This Rollei XF35 has quickly become one of my favorites and for the most part is in my everyday carry. If you have never shot with the XF35 or a rangefinder camera I really recommend checking one out. They are quite different from your regular point and shoots or SLR type cameras. I really love the XF35 cause it is like a little ninja, it is compact and the shutter is quiet which makes it perfect for street shooting. It has a beautiful f2.3 40mm Sonnar lens licensed by Zeiss which makes for some sweet photos, having f2.3 has also made for some rad night shots. Thank you Chris for bestowing this precious cargo to me, I love it and it is now part of my forever camera group. Below are a few shots taken with the Rollei on Ilford XP2 400 Film.
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I posted this on the Facebook page that I have been working on for my word and thought that I might share it here also :)
I have been exploring photography for many years, originally it was with digital cameras in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I had tinkered with my mothers Canon AE-1 but at that time it just wasn’t for me. My first serious digital was a Nikon D70, that camera and I got to see some pretty cool stuff in Vancouver in the early 2000’s. Life happened and I stopped shooting for quite a while. In 2017 I relocated to Toronto and during my transition to Eastern Canada I found photography again. At first with digital, I had the lenses from my D70 but it had died long ago but I found a nice Nikon D300 online and got reacquainted with my old friend. During this newly invigorated courtship with photography I started learning more about Jason Lee and his work with Polaroid Instant film’s. I was hooked, I wanted to shoot 8x10’s just like him. Holy hell are they expensive though, so I started with a regular Polaroid. That started a shift though and since then I have fallen deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of film. It is by no means dead, it is alive and in some ways thriving. A lot of my work is done on 35mm and 120mm along with various instant films. I recently acquired a large format 4x5 camera as my first steps to move towards my dream of an 8x10. There is a beauty, a romance of sorts that film has. I am completely taken by it and want to share my view of the world as I see it on all of the different film mediums I can get my hands on during my time on this globe.
The two pictures in this post are some of the first shots I’ve taken with my Cambo 4x5 large format camera. They are both peel apart pack film, the color one is Fuji FP100c and the B&W one is Polaroid 665. They are both expired films, sometimes with expired films your results vary as can be seen. I really love experimenting with expired films though because of this randomness and risk. There are so many variables to how the film will behave when exposed depending on how it was cared for and what it has experienced in its time since production. These things further instill my personal feeling that film is alive. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to work with such beautiful and rare things.
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