On Any Sunday

July 18, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Open-water swimmers are a difficult lot to photograph, they don’t hang around; clad in anything from a pair of Speedo’s and a latex cap, right through to full neoprene wetsuits, sea swimmers are in the water and gone. I have attempted to swim alongside these athletes but swimming on my side whilst operating a camera, even wearing large fins, isn’t easy… and I’m not an athlete. I’m going to persevere though because I really like the images I’m getting. I […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: isle of man, nikonos, Nikonos III, Nikonos V, open water, sea swimming

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

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

Six by Seven

February 16, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

All images – Pentax 67II/105mm/Kodak Portra 800 film

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 6x7cm, pentax 67, trawlermen

54.26° N, 4.68° W

February 13, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

These are the last images from ‘Holmtown’ that I’ll be sharing, for now; I’ve got to the point where I need to collate everything I have and get it all into some order. Also, there are dozens of faces I want to photograph in and around the harbour and breakwater area of Peel, some of them who are involved in the fishing industry on the Isle of Man but don’t necessarily go out to sea. Since I started this project, […]

Categories: film photography, Photography, photojournalism • Tags: colour, film camera, film photography, isle of man, kodak, peel, personal project, trawlermen

Keep the Faith

February 9, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’ve been somewhat disillusioned with film photography, of late. It happens once every couple of years, this questioning of my faith in analogue. Sometimes it’s as shallow as finding out that yet another photographer, whose work I admire, has jumped onto the digital ship and sailed away. But most of the time, it’s down to one uncomplicated factor. Money. Every roll of film I shoot, whether 35mm or medium format, costs about £15 – £5 for the film and £10 […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 6x7, film camera, film photography, fishing, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 800, negative, pentax 67, portra 160, scallops