During a meet with a Bro from Craigslist to purchase some vintage Nikkor
glass, I laid hands on the camera that would wind up altering my life. Attached to the 50mm f/1.4 that brought me to this gas station parking lot
was a dirty, beaten, worn but not worn out Nikkormat FTn. It’s silver body,
assembled in the late 60s, did nothing to hide the numerous dents, dings,
and engravings from New Trier High School.
Accustomed to the plastic clad Nikon D3000 I used at the time, I was surprised at the heft of the FTn. The seller, having no time for my curious
stares, interrupted my ogling with the phrase, “I’ll throw it in the deal
for free.”
I was now the owner of my first film SLR.
From there I would learn the language of Kodak and Fujifilm and Delta..
Emulsions and chemical reactions... Grain, dynamic range.
I also picked up on the ‘accents’ that programs try to recreate with algorithms and formulas. The light leaks, chromatic shifts and character in
distressed film all became the color of the words I shot.
It was this heavily accented dialogue that inspired what you’re now reading
and viewing. The gritty and genuine results of a haphazardly loaded roll of
film, a 46 year old camera, battered lens, and a hot Summer’s day in Memphis
coming together to make, what I’d like to call, “InstaArt”.