So I now joined the club. One of the last people on earth to buy a Holga, as I assume. No “early adopter” on this one, that is for sure. Well, so it is.
One reason for me to buy a Holga was the decision to build a darkroom and to learn to make my own prints. Working digitally I do not HAVE to know it but I want to. There is something I am missing in these digital prints from today. You could call it the soul of an object maybe. Something breathing, living, unique, something that makes me shiver. I think there are some images that deserve to be given a soul. Hence I have to learn the technique and will need some film to experiment with. Thus a Holga. Eventually I am after another camera, an old Mamyia or Hasselblad … but I have not found the right one yet and the Holgas are inexpensive enough to buy as an extra. Apart from that they are good to experiment around with and that is just something I like to do next to working seriously on my projects.
My Holga arrived from Vienna shortly before we left for Texas, and I was thankful to have the chance to take it with me along with some Velvia, some Provia and a couple of black & white Ilford films that I inherited from a friend many years ago, without ever having the right camera to use them in.
I admit it was a strange feeling to hold that light plastic camera body, it was just like the feeling on opening the funny and colorful box it came in. It reminded me of the first Barbie I got when I was little … similar feelings, similar smell … oh well. I felt stupid when I had to go through the manual to see how to put a film in this thing, but hey, I am a child of the digital age: I have to learn backwards.
Interesting though how expensive the film was in comparison to the camera … similar to a printer in comparison to ink and paper.
I was set to play mode: I now had a camera, that is famous for giving unexpected results due to light leaks, a plastic lens, film material that would go crazy on colour, a not to be trusted viewfinder and no experience with film from my side. So … it could only be fun!
My highest expectation was maybe one “alright” picture in 12, but actually I was positively surprised. If I had not ruined 1/3 of the film by forgetting to take the lens cover off the camera, I would have actually met my expectations. Just kidding! The results are more exciting than I had hoped for. Apart from the unexposed frames (due to the stupid lens cover) I had hardly any frames that were not at least ok. Some were actually quite nice.
I had the film developed but did not invest the money to scan it. I just do not think it is worth it. I will have a few frames scanned professionally for a project later, but this here is really just to satisfy my own curiosity (which is not used to have to wait so long for results) and so I turned my notebook into a lightable and photographed the film. I should have used a tripod but I had none available. So it is just a first glimpse into some material that was really great to make!
(click here or on the image to see more)
