Black and white photo taken using film camera
Vintage and retro seem to be slowly having a comeback as recent times goes by. Maybe because of its rare value and irreplaceable place that it has in the hearts of the people. Regardless of fashion, collectables or even antiques, more and more people are starting to appreciate it. The same applies to the field of photography, where film photographer and enthusiast Calvin Fong Chun Wei finds his passion with film.
How it first started?
This can be traced back to two years ago (2019), when Calvin first started learning photography. On one of the photoshoots, his photography mate introduced him to the world of film. Because during that time he was still in the learning process, so he wanted to try many different things as much as possible. So, without second doubt, he went to the camera shop the next few days to buy a Nikon’s Point and Shoot Camera and a random roll of film that he didn't even know about yet. Then started his journey of film photography.
Till now, it has been two years since he started film photography. He owned 4 film cameras in his film camera collection arsenal which are Nikon AF240SV Point and Shoot Camera, Nikon FE Slr Film Camera, Konica III Slr Film Camera and Mamiya RB67 PRO S, with a total spending of more than RM2500 together with film rolls and film processing service.
Calvin’s first photo using his film camera.
Why film photography?
One of Calvin’s satisfying film photos.
There are two reasons, one of the first is that film photography successfully let him regain his flame of passion and the touching feeling when he first started photography. It was during his lost stage where he met with film photography.
Film photography is a slow process, you are unable to view the outcome immediately and you will have to send the film rolls to be processed in order to find out what photo you have taken. Because of this, he feels like film photography has helped him to slow down his pace. Every time when about to take a photo, he starts to put more thoughts into the things he sees or even feels, before pressing down the shutter button.
The second reason is the sense of lost. Calvin believes that if a person stumbles upon something new and interesting when he or she is lost, the person will follow along the footsteps of it. It was at first how much he hated the fast pace of modern digital photography, that he then felt lost and met something that saved him from his lost times and that something is film photography.
He regained a lot of the feeling he lost while using a film camera to shoot photos, thanks to the initial feeling of lost that then helped him to meet film and made him love it more and more as he ventured deeper into it.
“You could say that while I was lost in my own self, I found a spark, and that spark is film,” said Calvin.
“Film can be said as my life-saving straw, without it my life would be empty and I would have given up photography a long time ago.'' he said.
Modern digital photography versus film photography
When talking about the user experience, Calvin thinks that the biggest difference between digital camera and film camera is the process. Digital photography is fast paced; while film photography is slow paced. For a digital camera, you can spam the shutter button like it is free; while for a film camera, every shutter button you press is a few ringgits wasted. For digital photography, you can manipulate or edit the photo as much as you like, having many flexible choices; while for film photography, it is more to originate the feeling of the photographer on that specific moment when taking the photo.
Next is operation wise, for digital photography you can leave all the heavy work for the camera, while you just focus on taking photos; as for film photography, most of the time you will have to learn and master everything from A to Z, which includes: how to load a film, how to properly expose a photo and how to unload a film.
Although digital technology did open up a lot of possibilities for the field of photography, it can never replace the sense of down to earth feeling and the touching emotion when you finally see your craft after a long wait in film photography, said Calvin.
Calvin compositing with one of his rare tlr camera.
What to achieve in film photography?
When asked about things he wanted to achieve with film photography, Calvin said that deep down in his heart he wanted to go back to some places where he used to have regret feelings and use his film camera to record it down. After that, he would send the film rolls to be processed and collect all of them in a box.
Film photography to him is more about feelings. When he is feeling down or not in a good mood, he would go to places that are more nature oriented such as the beach to shoot. If he is feeling good, he sometimes might even invite a few friends to do a photo walk and shoot film together in the city streets.
So, for him this is more like a personal project, as he feels like regrets are really hard to offset, because not every time you will have the chance to make it up. By shooting the places he has regrets with film, he can have something physical that he gets to keep and remember, rather than only saving them in softcopy online, which is why he wants to do so. Moody film photo that reflects feelings.
"I used to think that if we have the chance to fix our regrets, we need to go all in to do so,”
"But now from what I see, whatever regrets that happened already happened, there is no need to forcefully fix anything,”
"Now with film photography I had learnt to accept the regrets with an open heart, and I would just record them for me to remember.” he said
A meaningful piece from his personal project
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