The womb

December 10, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Once my sea sickness had disappeared, I found sleeping on a fishing boat to be very comfortable. A little bit too comfortable, in fact… ‘Tuesday 13th November 58°57.195N/6°59.510W Course – 228° Moderate-rough Rain 09:00 – The battery on my phone died – It’s taken me nearly half an hour to figure out whether it’s Monday, or still Tuesday… I’m not sure if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage, I suppose it depends on how you look at it? But sleeping […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, film, fishing boat, trawler, trawlermen

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

December 9, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

This journal entry was made halfway through my outing on the Reul na Mara; We’d come back to Scrabster harbour to shelter from the storm which had chased us all the way from Orkney, a maritime rollercoaster ride that lasted 10-hours. Ross’ approach and entry into a turbulent and blindingly dark Scrabster harbour was an impressive display of boat handling and a testament to his 36-years experience at sea – he made it look as easy as negotiating a shopping […]

Categories: photojournalism • Tags: 1600, 35mm, analogue, black and white, crewmen, fishermen, fishing boat, Ilford hp5 400, pushed film, scotland, trawlermen

Sleep when you can

December 7, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Some more meanderings from my recent trip with the crew on the fishing trawler, Reul na Mara, in the North Atlantic. ‘8th November 2018.  59°56.220N/6°44.813W Course 268°  Sea state – moderate to rough 00.20 – Trawler life is linear; there’s no set time of day when anything in particular happens, it’s merely, ‘Fish, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.’. Clock time is irrelevant, breakfast, lunch and supper are events rather than times of the day. Any sleep pattern I did have, we left […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism, Uncategorized • Tags: 35mm, analogue, scotland, trawler, trawlermen

Sea state – moderate

December 5, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

For two weeks in November, I joined the fishing vessel, Ruel na Mara and her crew, working about 100km northwest off the Outer Hebrides. I don’t wish to romanticise something that these men do for work, all year round, but for me, it was an incredible experience. “A proper adventure”, as a friend dubbed it – two weeks on a 24 metre, wooden-hulled trawler, with two Scotsmen and four Filipinos somewhere in North Atlantic, wearing the same underwear for days […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, 6x7, analogue, black and white, colour, film photography, fishermen, fuji pro 400H, I shoot film, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait, scotland, trawlermen

Go West…

November 16, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’ve just returned from a two week trip with the Inverness  registered fishing boat, Reul na Mara. Most of the fortnight was spent in the North Atlantic, off the NW of the Outer Hebrides. I’ll be publishing photos as they are developed and scanned, and sharing diary entries of this, the first of a few trips in the project, over the next few months. I haven’t done a technical type article for a while, so I thought it would be […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, nikon f100, scotland, trawlermen

Ballagroove

October 26, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Gypo, sound engineer and owner of the Ballagroove Recording Studio, was uncharacteristically late, so we stood out in the rain and waited (I don’t know why we stood outside when we could have stayed in our dry cars?). I’d contacted Gypo the previous evening to confirm, he replied to say he was on the side of a hill, ‘slightly tipsy’, we assumed he’d been ‘slightly more than tipsy’ the night before and was still asleep. Or worse. He had, in […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analog, analogue, Ballagroove, Biskee Brisht, black and white, Ilford HP5, Matt Creer, music, nikon f100

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