IS FILM REALLY DEAD?

It’s no secret. I love film. I shoot film all the time. For me it’s a style choice for a lot of my personal work but I still push for it with clients when the time is right. But more and more, when push comes to shove, film gets sand thrown in it’s face in favour of digital. However, I know many other photographers that feel the same way I do and want to use film whenever possible. For some time now, I have wanted to put together a series of interviews about the use of film in our digital world. Bneeth has presented me with the opportunity to get down to the heart of this pressing matter.

The first person I thought of for this series was Cole Barash. If you don’t know Cole or his work, he is an amazing shooter. While still in his early 20′s you would think he is like a lot of others his age who have never shot film. But he is as skilled with a 5D as with a Hasselblad. He learned the craft when film was the only option and he spent hours in the darkroom as a teenager. He still shoots a lot of film and his experience with the many formats if offers is apparent in his work. For more from Cole go to his new website, his blog and the newly launched tumblr blog Snowmads featuring unpublished works from snowboard photographers like yours truly, Blotto, Jerome Tanon, Christian Brecheis, and many others.

Part 1: Cole Barash Interview

You’re still pretty young but I know you have been shooting for a long time. Did you start out shooting film??
I would shoot, work for cash to process the film, get it processed and analyze it like crazy.  I would try and Iearn where and how i fucked up and would go back out with certain things in mind.  Thats actually one of the draw backs of digital I think – its so easy to shoot SO much, and its so fast to download it. Its harder for me at least to really sit and anaylze as compared to a contact sheet.

What cameras and film did you first start shooting with?
On my Pop’s Canon AE1 with films like kodak tri-x, fuji provia and velvia.

What attracts you to shooting film in this digital age?
For sure the process, grain, and tonality.  It really does slow me down. Only getting 10 shots a roll (using 6×7 film at least), and the editing process is much more hands on.  I take it to a much more personal level than when I shoot digital.  Not to say digital isnt great, it really is amazing, just only for certain things.  It’s a tool on your belt just like a carpenter has a dozen different saws  to choose from. I have so many different cameras but generally only shoot with maybe 4 or 5 (mamiya rz or hasselblad 501, mamiya 7, leica m6, contax t2 and a 5d).  I also think when you have a beautiful piece of glass in front of someone when shooting them, sometimes they actually stop and give you more, its weird.  Maybe I just think that, who knows. The glass as well produces a much different type of focus fall off that digital has yet to be able to match at least with the canon and nikon glass.

What does film allow you to do that digital doesn’t allow??
Film allows me to enjoy documenting  life without being so tied to electronics immediately.  In todays world of more and more demand for instantaneous imagery, at even crazier rapid speeds than before, its starting to feel like fast food for me.  With film- I shoot it, throw in the ziplock and don’t see it until I get it back from the lab.  Instead of feeling pressure while on trips to be editing that night, I can spend that time and energy shooting during that time or not.  When I see contact sheets the colors pop or the black and white has so much depth it gets me really pumped.  I then make a very tight edit only scanning or printing a very select few. Instead of 400 selects.

Do you have to fight with clients for the budget to shoot film?
Yes and no.  With most clients they are quite supportive.  However, some I really do have to fight.  On a recent ad job in hawaii, I did not get budget approved to shoot film, but I shot it anyways.  Obviously not as much, but there were a few certain moments when I know I needed to so I did.  When someone is hiring you for your style and look, I believe they need to let you have the tools to produce it.  Yes, budgets are thin these days and yes it’s not logical or economical to shoot film but its a necessity that is so part of my style and workflow now.

What is your reaction to people who say “Film is Dead”?
We’re all going to be dead haha………Sweet, let ‘em hate. I dont give a shit what people say or think sometimes because if you do then it will slow you down.  Is a fiberglass surfboard dead because the epoxy boards came out, nope.  You can’t beat some original digital produces amazing clean sharp images, truly.  But what if you’re not trying to jump on that ship?  There’s a lot of people out there shooting these days and some really good ones.  I feel its important to have a style, perspective and feeling to consistently produce these days.  If you do that with a 5d and a 50mm, cool. Or if you do it with a point and shoot, cool.  Its not about the gizomos and gadgets that get you there, it’s about your final piece you produce.  However you get there is how you get there.

Will film become extinct someday??
Probably.  Shit it’s heavy out there right now for film companies.  Especially the ones that did not appropriatly adjust and deliver to the general consumer shift of film to digital.

What are your preffered formats and film stocks??
I generally shoot with Kodak films.  As they support me with film for certain projects, I rep and promote them as much as possible.  Kodak tri-x, t max, the new ektar and new portra and some 100vs.

How do you deliver film to clients?? Scans? Prints? Who does the scanning (you or a lab)?
It varies.  Lately, I have been having the lab make duplicate contact sheets, one for the client and one for me. They make their selects, and we do the high rez scans (scanning is a whole additional piece to this process). But sometimes I just get film back, make selects, and deliver the scans.  Rarely, am I delivering hand printed prints, but occasionally for sure.  For the Transworld feature in this years photo annual I did that which was rad.  I was hyped to be printing in the dark room again, pretty rad process.

Are you finding it more difficult to get film processed/scanned etc??
Naw. I was living in SF where I had two super good labs (Lightwaves and Gamma). Now I am based in NYC and there are some very talented labs here.  For scanning, we do in-house with an Immacon.

What is the future of film?? How do you see it being used?? By who?
Purists, hipsters, trustafarians (kids that have fuckin unlimited funds from DAD that don’t have to work), true artists, old timers, new timers.  I guess a whole variety of people.  I see it being used for certain projects or slower processes of delivering a story.

Who is shooting a lot of film lately that you think is doing great work?

Jake Stangel - Is killing it.  He has a truly amazing color palette and a great eye.
Andreas Kon Wrath –  Is shooting rad shit in NYC.
Jerome Tanon and Matt Georges in snowboarding.
French Fred – X pan master and insane skateboard photographer
Lauren Dukoff – Really good BW musicians portraiture
Michael Kenna – A Masta
Danny Clinch – GRIT

All photos are from Cole Barash. For more work from Cole check out his blog.