All the colour shots here were made during my last trip to Yellowknife. They are all the last frame off each roll of film.

The strange obsession doesn’t end there, it can actually manifest itself on an even grander scale – at the end of shooting a project in another location, whether it be close by or in another country, I CAN NOT take any unused film home with me…I know, I have some kind of compulsive disorder.

The shots below were made at about 1am in Yellowknife, five hours before I was due at the airport to fly home. I shot about 15 rolls of film in less than 20 minutes…

I think I need to stay away from casinos and horse racing tracks.

The film v digital argument is as pointless as asking, “Which is better, toast or Corn Flakes?” – they both taste great and they both have their own place at the breakfast table.

This week I’ve been eating toast and cornflakes…AND yogurt!

This week I having been shooting with a Fuji X-Pro1, a Holga GCFN and a Holga 120 Pan

I made the shots below while shooting promo’ images for ‘The Wretched Pearls’. I love the etheral, dreamlike feel that the cheap plastic lens produces.

“Heralding from the majestic Nordic seas to the murkier British waters, The Wretched Pearls is an explosion of genre-bending artistry consisting of four good-looking women folk and two strapping lads. Leaping and dancing around on stage in extravagant white garments, they command the crowd with their epic sounds and infectious energy. 
Through their overwhelming waves of emotion, The Wretched Pearls will take you from the depths of sadness to the highs of euphoria while forcing you into a state of awesome-induced movement.
Prepare to dance.”

That’s The Wretched Pearls biography, I don’t know enough about music to write a proper review, but I know what I like, and I love The Wretched pearls.

The Wretched Pearls have just been on the Isle of Man for the TT festival and performed a fairly impressive ten gigs over a week, but still managed to shoot a music video and get a couple of portrait sessions in with me. Musicians are normally inherently difficult, but this band, all six of them, were a pleasure to work with – “I’m going to put you all in a giant paddling pool, fully clothed”….”Yeah! No problem!”

(L-R) Jogeir Daae Maeland: Guitar, Katrine Stenbekk: Vocals & Piano, Laura Shea: Bass & Backing Vocals, Helen Morrisson: Vocals & Piano, Laura Williams: Drums, Edwin Pope: Percussion/Samples, Sax & Guitar
Laura Williams: Drums
Edwin Pope: Percussion/Samples, Sax & Guitar

The Wretched Pearls Twitter, Facebook and Sound cloud

Anyway, my quick visit did actually turn into a session, as I’d suspected it would. It’s TT fortnight here on the Isle of Man and Lockett’s house sits right on the course, about 100 metres from Parliament Square. The Somerville front garden is the perfect vantage point to watch the bikes hammering into town, some of them breaking so hard that they snake out of control. One of the riders crashed around the corner, just out of sight from us, thankfully it was nothing serious.
We watched the bikes for about an hour, downing cans of beer, but the sun disappeared at about 8.30 and it got too cold to stay out, so we went inside. Lockett’s mum, as well as being an excellent seamstress, is also a great cook and had prepared us a superb late dinner, the fish was amazing, however I’m still not sure whether peaches belong in a salad starter? After dinner we finished-off the wine and debated as to whether the Isle of Man is lacking in cultural events. We decided it is and then walked to the pub to watch a couple of bands.
I woke-up at nine the next morning, hung over in a four-poster bed in the spare room. Before I left I had a little wander around and took some photos of the living museum that is Lockett’s home.

Sir Lockett Somerville is a real Sir, I’m not sure how he got it, but it says it on his credit cards. Peaches do not belong in salad. I realise now, while writing this, that I could have watched the bikes a bit longer if I’d put my fur jacket on…

All images made using a Pentax 67, 75mm/2.8 and Fuji Pro 400H

I discovered this quote a few days ago, as soon as I read it I realised that I’m in that place, that unchallenged place of comfort. But it was a revelation, bordering on an epiphany, I’d go as far as to say. This was a bugle call to start afresh.
Over the past few months I’ve fallen into the trap of making ‘safe’ photographs, I’ve stopped photographing for my own pleasure, and isn’t that what it’s all about? I like taking photos of my feet! And I enjoy creating the more alternative type of portrait. So that’s what I’m going to do!

Amazing. This talented young artist has actually put his photography on hold because he doesn’t want to ‘waste’ any of his creative ideas on what he considers to be inferior camera equipment. I was going to point-out that the Canon 5D mark III isn’t actually ‘The Best’, if he wants that then he should really be saving-up his student grant for an 8×10 inch film camera, but I’d have been wasting my time, I think.

What is ‘The Best’ camera? It’s the one you have with you, of course. I always have at least one camera on me, usually two – a 35mm film compact and some kind of digital, at the moment it’s a Canon G15 or a Fuji X-Pro1. If for any reason I can’t take a small bag out with me, I always have my iPhone in my pocket. People have become obsessed with megapixels and millimetres to the detriment of actually making photographs, we should be shooting with what we have, not what we think we should have.

If I ‘saved-up’ all my ideas to shoot on the best possible equipment, if I didn’t take that photograph outside the pub because I only had my iPhone, then I’d never get anything done.

Top to bottom – Fuji X-Pro1, X-Pro1, iPhone 4S, some toys, Nikon TW20, Holga GCFN, Canon G15, X-Pro-1, Olympus Mju II, Nikon TW20, Kodak disposable, Canon G11.

My love affair with the Fuji X-Pro1 continues, so much so that I haven’t shot a single roll of film for the last week. I feel bad, but I think that this is the way it’s going to stay – I don’t mean I’m never going to shoot film again, I’m just going back to the way I worked a year ago – shooting both.

Canada was a bit of a turning-point for me, shooting that project on film was difficult, I have to say – ordering 200 rolls of film in New York, having it sent to Yellowknife, the hassle of getting it all back to the UK, through security and X-ray machines and then the anxiety of getting it to the processors. Scanning takes a long time, but I love scanning, so that’s not a bad thing. The biggest drawback, and the most obvious, is the cost – about £12 for every roll of film bought and developed. That’s a wedge of cash that I could be spending on other projects, especially when 90% of my clients don’t know, or worse still, care if that photograph they are buying off a stock library was shot on a top of the range modern digital SLR or a 1968 Hasselblad medium format. Do photographers like the look of film because it was shot on film? Or is it because they know it was shot on film?

This can of Coke, it’s just a photo of a can of Coke, but viewed on my 27″ colour calibrated iMac it looks like AMAZING. I’ve also made a print from it onto matte paper. That also looks AMAZING…

I know what people are thinking – “Phil Kneen, you sell-out!”. Not so – over the next few months I’m shooting a project in Wales, an album cover, several portraits and an entire wedding, all on film. I’ve said it before – as long as I can buy film, I’ll shoot film.

Oh, by the way – one of the black and white images, above, was shot on Kodak Tri-X film…

***ALL COPIES OF THIS HAVE NOW BEEN PRE-ORDERED***

In the next few weeks I’m going to be publishing a selection of my Canada project photographs, mainly images shot in and around Yellowknife, but also some from much further south, in Hamilton.
I’ll be presenting the images over 16 pages in a quality tabloid newspaper format (the photograph below is a sample from the printers, the shots aren’t mine). The print run will be strictly limited to 500 copies (numbered and signed).

I will send copies to whoever wants one, on a ‘first come…’ basis. There is a small cost of £5.00 (UK) to cover postage (worldwide) and handling.

***ALL COPIES OF THIS HAVE NOW BEEN PRE-ORDERED***

I’ve been asked to co-host a street photography workshop in Amsterdam this summer, which I’m really looking forward to, but I have to admit that street photography isn’t a genre that I really have that much experience in! I think I’ll be handling the ‘street portrait’ side of the course.
I don’t really have any details for this workshop, as yet, and a few people have asked me about it. However, as soon as I have dates and details, I share them.