Nirvana

February 25, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my struggles with a recently purchased Hasselblad; I think a few people saw it as, “A bad workman blaming his tools”. It wasn’t; I was merely stating that I was finding the transition after years of shooting in a rectangular ratio to then seeing and shooting images as a square, demanding. The square thing isn’t new to me; I used and shot several successful projects and individual images a few years ago […]

Categories: film photography, model, Photography • Tags: 501cm, 6x6cm, black and white, delta 3200, hasselblad, ilford, kodak portra 400, square

Two and a quarter square.

February 13, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

I have to confess; I came close to selling my Hasselblad last week. I got another batch of films back, and there were a lot of disappointingly mediocre shots, in my opinion. But then I looked again – I think to go from years of shooting in the rectangular ratio back to square has confused my compositional mind, and I’m just not used to seeing my images that way. So I’m going to persevere – I’ve set myself a challenge; […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 501cm, film camera, hasselblad, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, negative, personal project, portrait, square

While you were sleeping…

January 28, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

At the end of last year, I began shooting a photo-essay based around the fishing industry on the Isle of Man. The project so far has concentrated on the crew members of the Port St Mary based scallop dredger, Sara Lena – skipper, Tony ‘Toad’ Watterson, his brother Juan, and Chris Overs – three of the kindest, most genuine and helpful men I’ve ever met. There’s been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Isle of Man scallop industry of […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, film, fishing, hasselblad, isle of man, nikon, Olympus mju II, scallops

‘bladdered

January 27, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’ve just received the first batch of scans back from my new Hasselblad 501cm; the results were ‘eclectic’, for two reasons – firstly, I shot the first roll on Christmas Day after drinking a bottle of Prosecco to myself. I think that’s as far as I need to explain that. The other reason is that I still haven’t got my head around the square composition of the Hasselblad again, after years of shooting 35mm and various none-square medium formats. Something […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 501cm, 6x6cm, expired film, fuji reala, hasselblad, kodak portra 800, medium format

Back to square #1

January 13, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

Hasselblad; the legendary, Swedish medium format camera – every professional or serious amateur photographer has, at some point, owned one or wanted to own one, and I’m no exception. A few years ago I managed to lay my hands on a particularly fine 503cx, however, during a moment of temporary insanity I swapped it for a Canon lens, a decision I always regretted. Ever since that rather unwise transaction, about five years ago, I’ve shot various other medium formats – […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 6x6, 80mm, black and white, camera, film photography, hasselblad, I shoot film, isle of man

The eye of the beholder.

February 24, 2013 by Phil Kneen Photography

I took the photograph above in 1990, in southwest France. I was about 20 years old and not particularly financially well-off, but that never seemed to matter, I made this on a beat-up Olympus OM1 and 50mm lens. I was rationing myself to 1 roll of film every 3 days, as it’s all I could afford, but again, that was never really a problem. When I got home I had the films developed, this one was one of my favourites. […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 503cx, 6x6, 6x7, black and white, camera, colour, Epson v700, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, hasselblad, I shoot film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, Peak imaging, personal project, portrait, wf

Mamiya 7II Portraits

April 7, 2012 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’m having a love/hate relationship with my Mamiya 7II at the moment. I love the quality, but its under-generous minimum focus distance is causing me problems. I’m also finding the rangefinder to be a bit of a pain in low light, in fact, I tried using the M7II with a flash attached in very low light, but found it impossible to focus. I’d use a Hasselblad, with its lovely bright focus screen and close-up capability, but I had a 503cx […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 503cx, 6x6, 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, colour, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, hasselblad, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, Kodak tri-x, large format, mamiya 7II, negative, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portrait, rangefinder

Man in the mirror

January 1, 2012 by Phil Kneen Photography

Something happened to me last year that has never happened in all the 25 years I’ve been taking photos, and it didn’t just happen once. In 2011 I was asked, three times, to remove portraits that I’d taken from public view. The first two photos were of two different people, but taken on the same day, in the same place, striking almost exactly the same pose. One was of my very close friend, Simon Campbell, it was pretty unflattering, to […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 160nc, 503cx, 6x6, 6x7, 80mm, ashley bentley, black and white, bonzo slater, camera, christy deHaven, colour, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji pro 400H, hasselblad, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, Peak imaging, peel, personal project, phil kneen, portrait, Simon Campbell, square, tony weir