I get questions every now and then asking me about these film scans. They’re scratched, gritty, have light leaks and sometimes look like they have some kind of chemical residue on them (there’s a proper term for it but I’m too lazy to Google at the moment). Anyway, they’re purposely set up to accidentally turn out like this.

All of these photos come from the first SLR camera I had ever owned. I bought it used, Junior year of high-school, for my first photo class. After burning through just two rolls of film, light leaks already started showing. I was pissed at first and felt ripped off. But at the same time, I was too lazy to get it fixed and too eager to shoot photos, so I just let it be.

Seven years later and the story’s still the same. I keep it the glove box of my car and carry it with me whenever I feel like shooting photos whimsically. I don’t take much precaution in how the film is processed, often times just taking it to a 1 hour photo booth where there’s a hit or miss chance that the person behind the counter actually knows what their doing (hence the chemical rings). I then take the negatives and scan it through my Epson. Sometimes I blow on it first but most times I just stick it on there. A couple tweaks on color and maybe some dodges / burns here and there and I end up with scanned images like the ones above.

Basically, the photos are more or less left up to chance and the only thing I really have control over is composition, but even that can change drastically given the amount of like leaks that show. I like to think the photos that turn out good are meant to turn out good and the ones that turn out like shit are meant to be that way as well. In reality, it’s a coin toss but I try not to think realistically when I shoot with that Canon.

I guess I like the photos this way because they feel much more genuine and not so photofucked, especially in these highly digital days. The result’s are never perfect and measures are rarely taken to try to make them that way. They just turn out as they are. It’s extremely freeing not having to care about the impurities.