“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”

May 16, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Shooting with the Nikonos III underwater camera has been a harsh lesson in disappointment; it’s difficult to use, considering it’s such a simple camera. There appears to be a lot of physics involved in underwater photography? Or is there? Perhaps I’m just making excuses for the high rate of unusable images I’ve ended up with since becoming obsessed with this forty-five-year-old water-tight temptress. Well exposed images, I don’t generally have an issue with – what’s giving me cause for concern […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: Nikonos III, underwater

Boston 26

April 8, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

The white squatters camp at Krugersdorp has grown onto the side of a much larger, blacks only township. These images were taken in the ‘transition area’ between the two settlements. Despite being there to photograph the white residents, I did take a lot of photos of the neighbouring black kids too. ‘Friday 16th March – Driving back through Pretoria I see an immaculately dressed black woman crossing the road, her obviously expensive designer clothes compliment her flawless complexion. From a […]

Categories: film photography, travel • Tags: Johannesburg, kodak portra 160, Krugersdorp, pentax 67, white squatter camps

Skinheads

April 6, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I shot these images for Charlie Dickinson, who is currently studying for a BA Hons in Fashion Design at Middlesex University, London. Charlie decided, despite being strongly discouraged, to base her ‘zine project around the skinhead subculture of the 80’s and 90’s Great Britain. I’m glad she decided not to listen. I shot the project using a Nikon F100 paired with 50mm and 28mm lenses. I loaded out of date Kodacolar to give a more authentic look. Fashion Styling & […]

Categories: fashion, film photography • Tags: kodak, nikon f100, skinheads

The things i saw (South Africa) #3

April 5, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

More visual meanderings from my analogue notebook and a passage from my journal. All images here were made using an Olympus MjuII compact loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 film. ‘Sunday 18th March – I’ve spent the last four days photographing people, old people, children. Families of five and six, living in sheds, surrounded by poverty and filth. I can’t give them anything, except a few packets of cookies and the odd cigarette to anyone who smokes. Every day I come […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, Johannesburg, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps

The things i saw (south africa) #2

April 4, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

At the moment, I’m sorting through about 100 ‘final’ images, mostly portraits, whittled down from 400 photographs I made for the photo-essay ‘Plakkerskamp’. I’m itching to share more, but I can’t, at the moment. So here’s another entry from my visual notebook. I’ve also included an entry from my journal which I wrote on the evening of my first visit to the white squatters camp at Krugersdorp, situated about 20km northwest of Johannesburg. ‘Munsieville Camp, Krugersdorp – We sat outside […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: Johannesburg, kodak ektar 100, Krugersdorp, Olympus mju II, photojournalism, pretoria, south africa, travel, white squatter camps

The things I saw (South Africa) #1

April 2, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

‘The things I saw’ – my visual notetaking and mental meanderings with a 35mm compact camera – I’d like to say it’s a regular thing. However, I just checked, and the last one I did was nearly 18 months ago, documenting a weekend drinking session in Liverpool with a good friend. Before I departed for a weeks work in South Africa, to document white squatter camps, I was reunited with my favourite 35mm compact – the Olympus MjuII, which had […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, I shoot film, Johannesburg, kodak ektar 100, Olympus mju II, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps

Plakkerskamp

March 30, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I was in South Africa for a week in March, shooting a photo essay, ‘Plakkerskamp’, a project to document the lives of white people living in the numerous squatter camps in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria since the end of Apartheid, 24 years ago. I have a lot of images to sort and various articles to write, so I thought I’d publish a few photographs now to ‘get the ball rolling’. South Africa was such an astonishing place; it felt […]

Categories: photojournalism, travel • Tags: Johannesburg, pretoria, south africa, white squatter camps

Nikonos III test roll

March 22, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

As far as cameras go, the Nikonos III underwater setup is pretty much as basic and elementary as it gets – five shutter speeds (1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 and B) on the body – apart from the winding mechanism, there are no more moving parts. Depending on which of the six lenses you choose, seven apertures are available (on the 35mm l use – f2.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22). There’s nothing automatic on this camera, not exposure […]

Categories: film photography, Photography, photojournalism • Tags: film camera, film photography, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, negative, Nikonos III, personal project, portrait, scallops, ultramax 400, underwater

The Latent Image

February 27, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Ask any diehard black and white photographer what he, or she, like most about their craft, and they’ll usually tell you about the excitement of developing and printing their work in an old-fashioned darkroom, the smell of the chemicals and the thrill of seeing the image materialise from a blank piece of paper. Well, I’m not one of those people – I hate the smell of the chemicals, that vinegary stench makes me gag, and I’m far too impatient to […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: mono, pentax 67, the latent image

Wet Work

February 26, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

After all my research into seasickness, the almost endless conflicting advice and remedies, I’ve finally cracked it. Ginger tablets, wristbands, stare at the horizon, don’t look at the horizon, cheese and onion crisps, run on the spot, lie down, stand up, earplugs, pour urine over yourself (that one might have been for box jellyfish stings, actually) … I should have just listened to what almost every seasoned fisherman has been advising me for the last few months – “You just […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: fishing boat, isle of man, nikonos, Nikonos III, scallops