Bex Finch Featured on American Hipster

On my ride to school today I was scrolling my instagram feed where I saw San Francisco-based photographer Bex Finche's post.
Bex, a film photographer, re-posted a photo from a few months ago taken on a rainy day with a person standing and holding their umbrella that flipped inside out from the wind, writing that this morning a video was released from that day.
That man holding his umbrella flipped is Paavo Steinkamp, host of American Hipster Presents, a new documentary - "Video Portraits of American Trendsetters"from 10 cities across the country.
Today's episode features Bex, her photography, iphoneography, where she talks specifically about instagram and her project documenting her father's alzheimer's disease.

Bex talks about instagram in a way I haven't looked at before. She says that she uses it as practice, composing her photos every time she uses it each day. For the most part I thought instagram as more of a  scenes to people's lives or behind the scenes of companies and brands. That's not the way Bex has used IG, and not why I was so attracted to her that I began following her some time last year. Bex uses instagram as if it were a quick platform for digital photos from her daily scenes, but being as serious as if it were photography-just with a phone. Since she is  heavy film photographer generally her only digital shots would be from her phone that go to her instagram. It makes perfect sense that as a film photographer she uses her phone as a tool for quicker results while still using her fundamentals of composition and light that she definitely uses in her film work. Which is why her instagram looks better than most.
Bex says she prefers using film because of the way it is more intentional, where she is thinking more about about composing things versus just shooting away with digital. She says that film cameras are reliable, give beautiful photos, have a forgiving quality, give different tones, have a more tangible component to them, and allow room to make work more convenient or better but require a little more effort and time.

She also discusses her father's alzheimer's and it's impact on her photography, which has hertrying to emulate him - his condition and state, bringing the idea of being disconnected from the environment, and having listless mood reflected in her work. The continuation of taking self-portraits and taking photos of her father as his condition continues parallel one another, and can be seen as she is trying to understand what is happening to him and trying to put herself in his position to understand what he is going through.



The way Bex talked about the different quality and nature of film reminds me of film photographer who are clear example of what she talks about, work from those who I especially enjoy and follow inlcude Jeff of 12fv and Sisilia Piring, The Sunday Huddle, Extra Bigger, and the blog Terroriss.

Bex's project on her dad is similar to other long term projects that photographers take on where they document people as they change and grow, but specifically observing them through the photos they take. Elizabeth Weinberg has done this with her younger sister and Irina Werning has done something similar with her Back to the Future projects where she take portraits of people in a way that compares themselves of their youth and as adults.

For more on Bex Finch see her website and her instagram @bexfinch.

Interview with Jason Yim, Reviewing Salam Sejahtera

SF local Jason Yim, the sales manager at clothing brand Benny Gold and team rider for Leader Bikes and Macaframa, just came out with his photo zine Salam Sejahtera from his biking trip last November to Malaysia.
I first met Jason about a year ago through Benny Gold and found he was easy going "goofy" guy and that he took photos, with an interest in using film and since then have followed him and his photos.

Earlier this week I met up with Jason to pick up a copy and we talked a bit about his trip and the zine.

Derek M: How would you describe yourself as a photographer? How does your demeanor translate to your attitudes and approach when you're taking photos?

Jason Y: I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I just enjoy taking photos. My approach to shooting something is usually when it's more "in the moment" I guess. I feel pretty comfortable asking strangers to shoot their photo, but it's a different feeling when you just shoot it from the hip or get the shot in their worst moment haha.

DM: Is there any theme to Salam Sejahtera? Why did you decide on that to title the zine, what is it's significance in respect to your trip, the people, and your photos?

JY: Salam Sejahtera simply means greetings or peace and well being in Malaysian. I named it that because of the positive vibes we received from everybody.

DM: Why were you in Malaysia? What was your trip about? Who went, for how long, what did you guys do?

JY: I was in Malaysia for Kuala Lumpurs first big track bike event. It was pretty crazed, the government poured a lot of money into it to get it organized the way it was. They even had news casters there and everything. It was a huge turn out. Me and a couple team mates from Leader Bikes and Macaframa were flown out to ride bikes and participate in the events they had. The trip felt really short lived. We were only there for about 5 days and every day was a bike thing. There wasn't really much time to do touristy type stuff and check the country out more. But none the less we all had a good time being in a country we've never been before. Faz was one of the dudes that took care of us and couldn't have been a better host. I think he's even coming out here for the Red Bull event.

DM: Did you guys know anyone over there, where did you stay?

JY: We didn't know anyone personally, we just knew of them through facebook

and have kind of been getting in contact with each other that way. I met a bunch of my international team mates from Leader and they're all awesome dudes - Faz, Rudy, Ippe, and a bunch of other people. We stayed in KL at a hotel the organization booked us at.

DM: What is your first time visiting Malaysia and the other places you visited while there? What were your expectations before the trip, what experiences did you anticipate?

JY: It was my first time there. I really didn't know what to expect. But I really wanted to buy a bunch of crap from the black market. Fake iPhones n shit. Ate a bunch of interesting foods. I wanted to see more of the city out the bike stuff took up a lot of the time.

DM: Was there anything you weren't prepared for/didn't expect? Any culture shocks you experienced? Was there anything really new to you?

JY: It was so hot and humid out there. it was like mid 90 degree weather with rain sometimes. The out of towners were definitely not used to it at all. The people from there were so used to it I even saw some dude wearing a crew neck in that weather and not even tripping about it at all. I would be sitting down with my shirt off in the shade doing absolutely nothing and still sweating my ass off. Everything out there was new to me, there was so much to see and experience it's kind of hard to put into words. I

can tell you that traffic out there is pretty insane, they really don't give a fuck out there haha.

DM: In terms of quantity, how much were you photographing (number of roles of film)? How difficult or easy was it to decide on how much/what to include in Salam Sejahtera?

JY: I think I shot about 12 rolls? I brought 2 cameras with me just as a back up and it actually came in handy. on the 10 th roll or something my main camera crapped out. I was kinda bummed cuz it was a super rare one that's hard to find on ebay or even in working condition. It was kind of difficult picking the photos I wanted in the zine. I actually wanted to keep it less bike related as much as possible, and 3 days spent there was at a bike thing. But I think I gathered enough.

DM: What did you want to do with this zine? What did you want to show with it?

JY: I just to get it out in peoples hands. I kind of wanted to show the timeline I experienced and things I saw that you wouldn't normally see here in SF.

DM: What other things over there besides the people interested you?

JY: Just the way of life out there is totally different. It's hard to explain. One of the photos in the zine that explains it pretty well is the one I think is 2nd or 3rd to last page. It's the family of 3 riding on the scooter, no helmets, with the mom holding an infant in her arm. I saw tons of that kind of stuff and was blown away by it. Cars are super expensive out there so a lot of people resort to scooters. I even saw a family of 4 with the baby sitting in the front zipping through the freeway.

DM: You were prepared going with your cameras and film, did you have it in mind to make a zine out of your trip or when did you decide to make it, instead of just posting photos online like you normally do with your photos?

JY: I wanted to make sure I had enough film on me for that trip. And I did have in mind that I wanted to make a zine out of it. Once the zine gets out a little more I'll start uploading some photos from it.

DM: You recently created Extra Bigger, what's the story behind that? Why did you guys decide to do it? For you, what's it like having this platform and being on board with your friends?

JY: I just wanted a group of friends that shot photos to contribute to a tumblr. Simple as that. Lately the fan base has been growing. I don't know what it is but there's this photo of Kanin and his bike on there and it's got like 1700 notes on there. I guess it just has to get reblogged by the right person. The platform is as simple as it is. Upload whatever photo you like for people to see. That's about it.

DM: Even though you don't consider yourself a photographer, do you have future ambitions with photography? Any ideas, projects, other trips maybe? Or just whatever happens happens and as it comes you'll take it from there?

JY: I just kind of do it as it comes. I recently did that flannel shoot for my work at Benny Gold. It was my first time doing like a model/product shoot and I think it turned out great. Luckily my girlfriend was there to be a stylist. She's done stuff like that for photo shoots in the past. She's awesome.

There are a lot of components to Jason's photos that are similar to what we see these days from other film photographers like the candid perspective, but what is so stand out is definitely his comfortability with strangers so that his photos show another side of people's lives that many photographers don't capture, even when it comes to his photos of friends and life in SF. We can see the honesty, enjoyment, and positive emotions in the people and subjects from Jason.

Jason's Salam Sejahtera is a black and white 60 page print, a limited edition of 60 that you can get for $5 on the Extra Bigger Shop.

You can see other photos by Jason on his personal tumblr.

The New York Times' The Lively Morgue

The New York Times recently created The Lively Morgue, a tumblr site for publishing it's massive archive of photos. Since the NY Times's first illustrated publication in 1896 it has been using photos to document and share global history, and since then has collected over 5 million prints.


The Lively Morgue gives us a sense of what kinds of photos they will post and where the photos are coming from in their description, "It was an era of bold global exploration to the North and South Poles. Aviation was evolving at breathtaking speed. Russia was in revolt. Pictures. New York took its place as a global cultural capital. The world was again convulsed in a war that ended with the atomic bomb. More pictures. Civil rights were won on the battleground, while explorers turned their sights to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Pictures and more pictures."


In their posts, the photos will be accompanied with short caption and sometimes extensive back stories. Photos and extended back stories will be posted on the Lens Blog. To enhance backstories, back side of prints will also be shown, providing notes from the photographer, contexts in which the photo was used, and other information. The New York Times will even have some prints seen on The Lively Morgue available for purchase.


I am beyond excited to follow The Lively Morgue, to see eras of the past, historical cultures I'll be only able to know through these photos and the stories shared about them. It will be great to learn about things of the past that I would have otherwise not even heard of. Projects and sites like this give the newer generations a piece of the past and opportunity to be engaged and be touched in some way by people and life styles so foreign to their era. The past has been the foundation and still influences the present and should be more known and widespread. If you're into photography, history, or older American and world culture, The Lively Morgue is definitely something you should consider checking out and following.

6 foot Negatives for Vanishing Cultures

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.