When I first skimmed NPR's first page on my phone about Dennis Manarchy making 6 foot negatives portraits I was beyond interested and impressed. To hear about a photographer using a camera that big to make that size film negatives sounds insane, especially considering the whole process of building the camera and developing that size negative. As digital becomes more widely used in print and online industries, it's a small amount of photographers that continue to use film and even few that push the limits and see what new things can be done. I remember last year when I came across the short video on Darren's Great Big Camera and was even blown away by that idea.
Once I was able to go back to the NPR post and read more on why Manarchy was even doing anything with this scale of film I saw that this was more than just himself as a photographer, but a project to document historical Americans. For now, Manarchy is using a prototype 35 foot long camera, but is hoping to raise funds with his kickstarter page to build a polished product for the project Vanishing Cultures. Manarchy's project will take him around the states to photograph people and cultures of America's history.
With the help of his team, Manarchy is certainly taking up a great project that is socially significant in remembering these people and documenting their portraits like never before, as well as literally huge in the photography community, especially with the camera's 200th year anniversary coming up. I cannot wait to see more from this project and see how this will inspire other photographer with large format film and what other creative projects will come.
No comments:
Post a Comment