A little bit X-TRA

February 23, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been having a bit of a photography documentary feast; have a search around Amazon Prime and Netflix, and you’ll find loads. Last night I watched, ‘Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film’; the movie documents the…well, the clue’s in the title. I don’t want to give away the plot, but it’s a bit like any movie about the Titanic – it always hits an iceberg and sinks at the end. Polaroid sails […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 35mm, colour, film, film camera, film photography, fuji film, fuji superia 400, personal project, portrait

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

Just make it up.

January 25, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

My two primary fields as a photographer are portraiture and photojournalism; a lot of my images are straight, natural, environmental portraits, such as those I shot in the migrant camps of northern France and for my project last year in Spain. Other times I get an idea into my head as to how I’d like someone to look or a situation I’d like a person to inhabit. However, that person or place may not be available, or even exist. For […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji superia 400, makeup, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait

That was 2016…

January 1, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

My yearly review got a bit delayed this year, I’ve had it ready to go for about three weeks, but the included images have changed on an almost daily basis. For the first time, all the images were shot on film – I’ve returned to using analogue, almost exclusively, for all of my personal work. I’m currently working on the final project for a Master’s degree in photojournalism and documentary photography, so I’ve shot very little in the way of […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 6x6, 6x7, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji pro 400H, isle of man, kodak portra 400, Olympus mju II, peel, personal project, phil kneen, portrait

The things I saw (Tokyo) #4

April 25, 2016 by Phil Kneen Photography

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it” All the images here were made using an Olympus MjuII 35mm compact and various film (Fuji Superia 400/800 and Kodak Gold 400, mainly). Processed and scanned at UK Film Lab.

Categories: film photography, photojournalism, travel • Tags: fuji film, fuji superia 400, japan, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait, tokyo

The things I saw #9

October 30, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

This is the last of my ‘The things I saw’ series, my visual meanderings and notebook of the banal from a month in The Netherlands, France, Spain and Andorra. Some people have enjoyed these shots, others have not, finding them… well, banal. You can’t please everyone – which is why I don’t try to. As the Canadians say, “It is what it is”. Over the next couple of days I’m going to be re-packing my camper van in readiness for […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: colour, film, film photography, fuji film, kodak portra 400, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait

The things I saw #8

October 29, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

‘Saturday 26th September – We’re parked outside the Premier Inn on Dover seafront. We’re due to get the 1am ferry to Dunkirk on Monday morning, but we raced down from Norfolk to see if we could get a last-minute deal on the tunnel… no such luck. The cheapest they can do is £178, one way… the man at the ticket office obviously misunderstood and thought I wanted to buy the actual tunnel. So we’ve decided to hang around and get […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 35mm, cat, film, I shoot film, kodak portra 160, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait, road trip, vanlife

The things I saw #6

October 28, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

More random visual meanderings and scribbles with the pen and the camera. All images made using an Olympus MjuII 35mm compact and Kodak Portra 160 film. Today I’ve realised that I get as anxious about my equipment as I do every other aspect of my life… I love the Olympus MjuII… I’m actually starting to wonder if I should just shoot everything, all my projects, using this one camera? I have two of these little compacts now – one I […]

Categories: film photography, Photography, photojournalism, travel • Tags: 35mm, 35mm film, compact, film, film camera, film photography, france, I shoot film, kodak portra 160, negative, Olympus mju II, passport, pentax 67, personal project, phil kneen, portrait, spain, tree

The Things I saw #4

October 26, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

Since returning home last week, following a string of unfortunate incidents, things have begun to gradually improve… my ex-wife Helen told me they would, twice. My continuing stories about campsites in Spain, and their perpetual residents, has stirred-up quite a bit of interest… I’ve been contacted by a couple of agents who’d like me to go back to Benidorm and extend the story. I must admit that the idea of going back to that area wasn’t something I had planned… […]

Categories: film photography, Photography, photojournalism, travel • Tags: 35mm, Ballachulish bridge, Benidorm, calais, film, film photography, fine art, I shoot film, kinlochleven, kodak, kodak portra 160, kodak portra 400, kodak portra 800, Olympus mju II, olympus mju2, personal project, phil kneen, photojournalism, portrait, scotland, Simon Campbell, spain, tourism

The things I saw #3

October 26, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

More random visual meanderings and scribbles with the pen and the camera. All images made using an Olympus MjuII 35mm compact and Kodak Portra 160 film. Film was developed and scanned at UK Film Lab. Oh, a tip for anyone driving and using the French toll roads – they don’t accept MasterCard Prepaid… ‘Saturday 17th October, somewhere between Andorra and Chamonix – I’m covered in bites – all over my legs, arms and back. I’d assumed they were mosquito bites from […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism, travel • Tags: 35mm, camper van, film, film camera, film is not dead, film photography, fine art, fleas, I shoot film, kodak portra 160, kodak portra 400, motor home, negative, olympus mju2, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, road trip, UK Film Lab, ukfl, vitamin c