35mm analogue film.
35mm takes you back. It takes you to a time where colours were richer and laughter was brighter, and presents this through a warm, hazy, grainy lens that feels more like a memory than a photograph.
What makes film feel.
Film has a way of slowing down the moment, freezing it as it happened with no manufacturing. I work slower with film. It’s a finite medium, limited to 36 shots per roll, so every single one is considered and intentional. With digital photography, I can take 20 shots of the same moment of connection - laughter, a hug, a gentle touch - and carefully select the best one, the most flattering one, the one with the most aesthetic framing. With 35mm film, it’s one shot. It’s that moment, as it was, complete in all it’s authenticity. It’s real belly laughs, it’s a touch that was so fleeting it’s almost gone before the shutter closes. It’s this quality that makes film so nostalgic, and this quality which digital cannot replicate.
Rich, warm colours, soft grain, light leaks, motion blur, perfect imperfections - these aspects give film a dream-like quality. It feels. It feels alive, it feels soulful. It feels more like a memory than a still image. Every time I work with film I never quite know what the shot looks like, only what I’ve seen and the intention behind it, knowing only that the resulting image will be a true representation of that moment. It’s only once the roll has been developed and the negatives scanned that we can revisit. There is no tweaking, no manipulation, no curation. It simply exists as is.
WHY I’M OBSESSED.
01 THE NOSTALGIA
Think of your parents’ wedding album. The photos from your grandparents’ summer holidays. Maybe the photos of you and your siblings as kids. Film is inherently nostalgic. It’s immersive, it’s real, it’s no-frills, it tells a story in it’s purest, unfiltered form. It feels more like a memory than a manufactured image and your wedding gallery should feel the same.
02 THE AESTHETIC
Film has a feeling digital cannot come close to, let alone replicate. The colours are warmer, the contrasts are softer, and the moment exists purely as it happened. It’s a shot caught mid-movement with no before, no after, no ‘how do I look, can we do that again’. It’s a moment that really happened, as it really happened, and it feels alive.
03 THE IMPERFECTION
It’s imperfect, but that makes it perfect. It’s a bit grainy, the focus is softer, the light leaks into the frame, there’s movement and energy and it’s these qualities that create something so akin to human memory. It’s not a totally clear image in our minds, more of a feeling, a combination of senses where nothing is really static. Film feels the same, imperfect but perfectly that moment.
WORKING WITH BOTH DIGITAL + 35MM FILM.
I take a film first approach on a wedding day. I get the shot on film, and use digital almost as a back up. Documenting everything digitally ensures nothing is missed and creates depth in a gallery, while shooting film first documents the feeling and the honest moment of connection. Digital creates the bulk of your wedding gallery, the details, the people, the everything, and film brings life, soul, and the purest energy. Blending the two formats ensures every moment is captured and every scene has nostalgia, creating an immersive gallery you can really feel.
