Written and Photographed by David Teran

Dance is a universal subject, as is photography. Having a deep love for the darkroom, and ballet photography, I have combined those two subjects to create a meaningful body of work in over 15 countries, with a goal of 25 countries in total. Though at times it may not be as technically perfect as a digital photograph, a darkroom image speaks elegantly in a world saturated with sterile images.

Artist

My name is David Teran, a photographer based out of San Antonio, Texas. Photography is my full-time gig, but film photography and the darkroom is my full-time hobby. With the help of my friends - and 100+ ballerinas around the world, I am currently working on self-publishing a fine-art coffee table book of ballerinas photographed on film. You can see my images over on my Instagram or website.

Gear and Film Stock

As the name implies, this entire project is photographed with a Hasselblad 500C/M, one roll of Ilford HP5+ @ ISO 400. 98% of the project has been photographed with an 80mm f/2.8 lens, but occasionally the 150mm f/4 is pulled out when some lines need to be kept straight, or when background compression is desired. A Pentax Spotmeter V is used to meter. 1/500th is my target shutter speed, but since this is an entirely ambient light project, that’s not always possible. My favorite aperture is f/5.6, but depending on the shutter, f/8 or f/11 are sometimes necessary.

Time of day & locations

I try to shoot between 9-11am, and also between 3-5pm. Sessions usually take about 90 minutes to go through one roll. 

• Locations that have been photographed:

Las Vegas, NV; San Antonio, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Austin, TX; Ft Worth, TX; San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA; San Diego, CA; Chicago, IL; New Orleans, LA; Houston, TX; Washington, D.C.; Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cartagena, Colombia; Medellin, Colombia; Bogotá, Colombia; Playa de Carmen, Mexico; Antigua, Guatemala; Liberia, Costa Rica; Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; Santorini, Greece; Paris, France; Milan, Italy; Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal.

• Desired locations before project completion:

London, United Kingdom; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Copenhagen, Denmark; Berlin, Germany; Moscow, Russia; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Hong Kong, China

Development and Scanning

The film is hand developed in TMAX developer with Paterson tanks - usually 3 rolls at a time -  in a rented community darkroom. Film has been scanned with an Epson V600.

Method and Process

Classical ballet photography is all about finding the perfect angles and lines. Ballerinas are photographed quite often, and sometimes are not so willing to be photographed again. The analog nature of this project has opened up many doors, especially with dancers who might not be willing to shoot again. Many dancers are between the ages of 20-30 years old, and are seeing a Hasselblad camera for the first times in their lives. That being said, a ‘digital Polaroid’ is used to ensure lines look good, and to practice the timing. Once the ballerina OKs the digital proof, exposure is metered using a grey card, and 1 of 12 images is made. Ballet is an extremely small world: ballerinas in Madrid, Spain have recommended ballerinas in Phoenix, Arizona; I’ve been connected to ballerinas in New York City via ballerinas in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Amazing how connected we all can be.

Artist Statement

Technology alone cannot create great dance imagery; it is technology combined with a desire to make something bigger than us that can give us the beautiful images we care about. When you combine state of the art camera equipment from 1970 with that desire, you get a series of images born in the darkroom that captures the fleeting beauty of dance in twelve frames. Dance is a universal subject, as is photography. Having a deep love for the darkroom, and ballet photography, I have combined those two subjects to create a meaningful body of work in over 15 countries, with a goal of 25 countries in total. Though at times it may not be as technically perfect as a digital photograph, a darkroom image speaks elegantly in a world saturated with sterile images. This project is a result of my desire to expose the Instagram generation to the beauty of the analog realm from a bygone era.

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