Analog Photo Project
by Joaquim De Oliveira Gonçalves
Alright. A little photography history lesson. Nowadays we all shoot with our beautiful, fast DSLR digital cameras. What you shoot is immediately visible on your screen and you have a hundred chances to make the picture just right.
But for more than 100 years the only way to take pictures was with an analog camera or film camera. Film photography is photography that uses a chemical process based recording medium (e.g. photographic film or plate).
Analog pictures are made with a film roll inside your camera and by going through a chemical process in the darkroom you see the results of the pictures taken. It’s a beautiful magical evolution from shooting to creating the physical picture.
I remember this evolution very well from when I was a young girl and I would join my mom in the darkroom 🙂
It is this magical process that keeps Joaquim still shooting pictures in analog nowadays.
Joaquim started to photograph at a young age already.
“I was usually the designated photographer for family vacations.’
Later on, he started to be more interested and he read a lot of books about photography and photographers.
“In my mind, I decided there and then that this is what I wanted to do as a profession, I bought a camera and started to shoot and develop at home.”
“Street photography is my all-time project.“
Joaquim became an Art director and Designer for several advertising agencies but continued to photograph.
“Nowadays it’s really part of my life as a second job, although I don’t have assignments in photography, I make my own. Street photography is my all-time project.”
Because he is mostly a street photographer, he never leaves the house without one of his cameras.
He is also very into portrait photography, “……but street photography is without a doubt my favorite approach to photography, my vacations are usually to travel abroad for my street photography projects.”
The reason street photography is his niche, is because life is his main inspiration for photography. Everything around him could become a photograph or an essay, living things or not.
“I always try to look for the photo which is beyond the obvious, which is hidden somewhere waiting to be found.”
Photography is an art form and one of the questions I always ask the people I interview is, how much is it just for fun and how much is emotional?
For Joaquim, both are inherent, like for many other artists out there.
He has a lot of fun taking his pictures, especially with film.
“That feeling of calm and reflection before each shot, the waiting for the results, it always gives me a special sense of fun and joy.”
For the other part, it’s completely emotional as well. Being involved with photography makes him completely committed to that unique moment and when he starts to shoot he needs to be emotionally involved, there is no other way. His mind is only in that moment.
“Nothing else matters.”
Being that emotionally involved and being aware of what happens internally, makes you receptive.
Conscious of your progress and process. Evolving and learning are all part of that and as long as you keep shooting you never stop that process.
“You are the best piece of gear you have, it doesn’t matter what you use, just shoot.”
Follow Joaquim De Oliveira 🙂
You can follow Joaquim on Instagram @joaquim_photo
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